The flight time from Houston to Chicago is 2 hours, 35 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves IAH Houston, TX 1 minute early.
17 minutes taxiing out
2 hours, 3 minutes in the air
12 minutes taxiing in
Arrives ORD Chicago, IL 4 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

United
81%
American
75%
Spirit
71%
Frontier
48%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from Houston to Chicago is 2 hours, 35 minutes. The time spent in the air is 2 hours, 3 minutes.

The flight distance from Houston to Chicago is 925 Miles.

Reverse Journey

Chicago to Houston
2 hours, 44 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

Spirit
2h 32m
Frontier
2h 33m
United
2h 35m
American
2h 35m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM 30m1h1h 30m2h2h 30m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0.00.51.01.52.0

Flights Per Week

102

Distance

925 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0100200300400500

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun051015

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

United
72
American
16
Spirit
10
Frontier
2

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is Houston from Chicago by plane?

The distance from Houston to Chicago by plane is 925 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

How long is the flight from Houston to Chicago?

The flight time from Houston to Chicago is 2 hours, 35 minutes. The time spent in the air is 2 hours, 3 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with Spirit being the fastest taking 2 hours, 32 minutes, and United the slowest taking 2 hours, 35 minutes.

What airlines fly from Houston to Chicago?

Spirit, American, United, and Frontier are the airlines with direct flights from Houston to Chicago.

Does Southwest fly from Houston to Chicago?

Southwest does not fly from Houston (IAH) 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 Houston 1 minute early
Taxi Out Time 17 minutes
In the Air 123 minutes
Taxiing In 12 minutes
Arrives Chicago 4 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 Houston to Chicago, Frontier is 48% reliable, which means that Frontier flights are on time 48% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
United 81% 18% 1%
American 75% 23% 2%
Spirit 71% 27% 2%
Frontier 48% 47% 5%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between Houston 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 14 123 12 152
Frontier 16 121 15 153
United 18 123 12 155
American 15 124 13 155

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
10am 0.69
1pm 0.57
7pm 0.02
8am 1.06
11am 0.56
3pm 0.03
8pm 1.03
11pm 0.01
12pm 0.77
0am 0
9pm 1.21
10pm 0.14
2pm 1.07
6am 1.51
7am 0.75
5pm 0.87
4pm 1.52
6pm 1.11
5am 0.6
9am 0.77

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from Houston 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 358
February 312
March 370
April 427
May 484
June 488
July 494
August 500
September 473
October 473
November 454
December 476

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from Houston 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 15.4
Tuesday 14
Wednesday 14.1
Thursday 14.71
Friday 15.15
Saturday 13.92
Sunday 14.81

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 0
Spirit 0
Frontier 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)
10am 20 124 12 158
1pm 15 123 11 152
7pm 24 121 12 157
8am 18 123 11 152
11am 17 124 13 158
3pm 17 124 22 167
8pm 20 121 8 150
11pm 15 123 8 146
12pm 19 123 13 156
0am 17 123 7 147
9pm 16 120 8 146
10pm 13 120 10 147
2pm 18 124 12 157
6am 16 125 14 157
7am 19 124 12 157
5pm 16 123 16 160
4pm 17 125 16 160
6pm 21 121 12 155
5am 16 126 13 156
9am 17 123 10 152
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.