The flight time from Boston to Chicago is 2 hours, 48 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves BOS Boston, MA 4 minutes early.
17 minutes taxiing out
2 hours, 12 minutes in the air
15 minutes taxiing in
Arrives ORD Chicago, IL 9 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

United
84%
American
83%
Delta
81%
Spirit
80%
JetBlue
73%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from Boston to Chicago is 2 hours, 48 minutes. The time spent in the air is 2 hours, 12 minutes.

The flight distance from Boston to Chicago is 867 Miles.

Reverse Journey

Chicago to Boston
2 hours, 18 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

Spirit
2h 40m
United
2h 44m
American
2h 48m
Delta
2h 49m
JetBlue
2h 52m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM1h2h
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0123

Flights Per Week

124

Distance

867 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0200400600

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun051015

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

United
42
American
40
Delta
28
JetBlue
12
Spirit
1

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is Boston from Chicago by plane?

The distance from Boston to Chicago by plane is 867 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

How long is the flight from Boston to Chicago?

The flight time from Boston to Chicago is 2 hours, 48 minutes. The time spent in the air is 2 hours, 12 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with Spirit being the fastest taking 2 hours, 40 minutes, and JetBlue the slowest taking 2 hours, 52 minutes.

What airlines fly from Boston to Chicago?

Spirit, JetBlue, United, American, and Delta are the airlines with direct flights from Boston to Chicago.

Does Southwest fly from Boston to Chicago?

Southwest does not fly from Boston (BOS) to Chicago (ORD). Keep in mind that Southwest may fly to other nearby airports, as they will often fly into smaller airpors instead of larger ones. This is because the costs are often lower to fly into smaller airports, and they pass the savings on to you.

Tables and Explanations

Data Source

Our information is computed from the latest available data from the US Department of Transportation.

Average Timeline Timeline Chart

The average timeline contains the median time a flight spends in 3 stages. The first of these three stages is taxiing out which includes the time from the flight leaving the gate to taking off. The second stage is in the air, which includes the time spent from the flight leaving the ground to touching back down at the end of it's journey. The last stage is taxiing in, which is from when the flight touches down to the flight arriving at it's gate.

The average timeline also estimates on average of when the flight will leave and arrive relative to it's stated departure time.

Leaves Boston 4 minutes early
Taxi Out Time 17 minutes
In the Air 132 minutes
Taxiing In 15 minutes
Arrives Chicago 9 minutes early

Flight Reliability Reliability Chart

The reliability of an airline measures how often the airline's flights on this route are cancelled or delayed more than 20 minutes. For example, from Boston to Chicago, Delta is 81% reliable, which means that Delta flights are on time 81% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
United 84% 14% 2%
American 83% 15% 2%
Delta 81% 17% 2%
Spirit 80% 7% 13%
JetBlue 73% 26% 1%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between Boston and Chicago, this is due to different operational factors on the ground, as well as scheduling of planes. Each airline's flight time is split into three stages which are described above in the "Average Timeline" section. There are also miscellaneous operational issues which are included in the below total but are not accounted for in one of the three stages.

Airline Taxiing Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxiing In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
Spirit 16 128 14 160
United 15 131 14 164
American 18 132 16 168
Delta 20 133 14 169
JetBlue 18 135 17 172

Flights By Time of Day Flight Time By Day Chart

This one is pretty self explanatory, it represents the number of flights that leave the gate in a given hour of the day. The tricky thing here is that this is normally not a whole number since it is an average over 52 weeks. Partial numbers may indicate that a flight may be seasonal or may take off at different times due to different operational factors.

Time Count
7pm 0.44
7am 0.99
5am 0.4
9am 0.96
4pm 1.15
11am 0.47
12pm 1.41
8am 1.53
5pm 1.94
1pm 0.25
10am 0.88
3pm 1.59
6am 2.67
9pm 0.06
6pm 1.01
8pm 0.51
2pm 1.14

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from Boston to Chicago that take off in a given month of the year. This number changes because some flights are seasonal, and almost all flights have uneven demand througout the year.

Month Count
January 465
February 434
March 506
April 536
May 618
June 651
July 666
August 583
September 551
October 527
November 470
December 461

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from Boston to Chicago that take off on a given day of the week. Some routes only have enough demand to sustain a few trips a week, while others have many flights a day. This number is also an average across the year, and hence may not be a whole number.

Day Count
Monday 18.44
Tuesday 17.71
Wednesday 18.46
Thursday 18.4
Friday 18.5
Saturday 15.29
Sunday 17.58

Flight per Airline (per Week) Flights By Airline Chart

How many times an airline flies this route in a week. Different factors play into how often a carrier chooses to fly a given route including it's need to connect disparate routes, and demand.

Airline Flights per Week
United 1
American 1
Delta 1
JetBlue 0
Spirit 0

Flight Time By Time of Day Flight Time by Time of Day Chart

The total flight time varies by each hour of the day due to factors such as airport traffic. More flights leaving an airport may cause higher taxi in or taxi out times. See the description of the average timeline above for a deeper discussion of each of these times.

Time Taxi Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxi In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
7pm 21 130 11 167
7am 18 131 17 170
5am 14 127 12 155
9am 15 132 13 162
4pm 16 135 18 173
11am 14 134 12 162
12pm 15 133 14 164
8am 19 131 14 167
5pm 20 133 19 175
1pm 18 133 14 165
10am 16 132 13 162
3pm 17 134 15 168
6am 19 133 15 170
9pm 15 125 6 149
6pm 20 131 15 170
8pm 18 131 9 160
2pm 17 133 15 165
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.