ORD to RIC flight delays
Chicago, IL (ORD) Richmond, VA (RIC) · 642 miles
2,219 flights · January 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
70.16%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
2.93%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
79 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
25 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Which airline you fly changes the odds here. Envoy Air arrived on time 20.2 points more often than United Airlines over the same period on the same route — same airports, same weather, same air traffic control. A gap that survives all of that is about how the two airlines are run.
The season swings this route hard. In May it ran 29.4 points more punctual than in December — a difference bigger than the one between the best and worst airlines on most routes. If the date is flexible, it is worth more than the carrier.
Cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth pricing here: 2.93% of scheduled flights never operated. A late flight still gets you there. A cancelled one leaves you rebooking, and on a route with few daily departures that can mean losing a day.
The two directions do not behave alike. RIC to ORD arrives on time 6.9 points more often than the outbound. Delay accumulates through the flying day, so whichever direction is scheduled later tends to carry the worse record — which is an argument for booking the morning departure if the choice exists.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over January 2025 – August 2026, Envoy Air arrived on time most often on ORD to RIC. United Airlines was late most often. Flights ran closest to schedule in May and worst in December.
Every airline on ORD to RIC
Ranked by how many flights each one operated. A carrier with fewer than 100 flights in the period is listed but not graded.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 827 | 77.3% | 2.42% | 65 min | C |
| SkyWest Airlines | 718 | 61.9% | 4.32% | 96 min | F |
| Envoy Air | 379 | 78.86% | 2.11% | 59 min | C |
| United Airlines | 295 | 58.68% | 2.03% | 78 min | F |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
The return leg
RIC to ORD Richmond back to Chicago 77.05% on time DOther routes from Chicago
Common questions
Are flights from Chicago to Richmond usually delayed?
70.16% of flights on the ORD to RIC route arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, so roughly 3 in every ten arrived late. That is worse than the average route in this record.
Which airline is most on time from Chicago to Richmond?
Envoy Air, at 78.86% on time across 379 flights. The least punctual on the route was United Airlines at 58.68%.
How often are ORD to RIC flights cancelled?
2.93% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 29 in every thousand. That is high enough that cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth planning around.
What is the best month to fly Chicago to Richmond?
May, when 79.7% of flights arrived on time. The worst was December at 50.3%.
When ORD to RIC flights are late, how late are they?
About 79 minutes on average across the flights that arrived more than 15 minutes behind schedule.
What these figures do and do not tell you
Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on ORD to RIC during January 2025 – August 2026, as reported by the airlines to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. "On time" is the federal definition: arriving at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
A route's record is a description of the past, not a forecast. Weather, air traffic control and the aircraft's earlier flights that day drive most delays, and none of them are predictable from a historical rate. What the record does tell you is whether this route runs late more often than others, and which carrier on it has the better history — which is the part you can actually act on when you book.
Cancellations are counted separately from delays because they are a different problem for a traveller: a late flight still gets you there. How the grade is calculated →