ORD to SDF flight delays
Chicago, IL (ORD) Louisville, KY (SDF) · 286 miles
231 flights · March 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
75.12%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
6.93%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
73 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
19 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth pricing here: 6.93% 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. SDF to ORD arrives on time 5.9 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.
Only Republic Airways flies this route in the published record, so there is no choice to weigh — the route's figures and the airline's are the same figures.
This is a thin route — 231 flights across the whole period. On a route this infrequent a cancellation is far more costly than the rate suggests, because the next departure may not be the same day.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over March 2025 – August 2026, Republic Airways arrived on time most often on ORD to SDF.
Every airline on ORD to SDF
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 | 153 | 75.18% | 6.54% | 87 min | D |
| SkyWest Airlines | 78 | 75% | 7.69% | 47 min | — |
The return leg
SDF to ORD Louisville back to Chicago 81% on time COther routes from Chicago
Common questions
Are flights from Chicago to Louisville usually delayed?
75.12% of flights on the ORD to SDF route arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, so roughly 2 in every ten arrived late. That is about the same as the average route in this record.
Which airlines fly from Chicago to Louisville?
Only Republic Airways appears in the published record on this route, with 153 flights and 75.18% arriving on time.
How often are ORD to SDF flights cancelled?
6.93% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 69 in every thousand. That is high enough that cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth planning around.
When ORD to SDF flights are late, how late are they?
About 73 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 SDF during March 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 →