The flight time from Los Angeles to Chicago is 3 hours, 56 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves LAX Los Angeles, CA 3 minutes early.
16 minutes taxiing out
3 hours, 27 minutes in the air
11 minutes taxiing in
Arrives ORD Chicago, IL 10 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

United
89%
American
85%
Spirit
79%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from Los Angeles to Chicago is 3 hours, 56 minutes. The time spent in the air is 3 hours, 27 minutes.

The flight distance from Los Angeles to Chicago is 1744 Miles.

Reverse Journey

Chicago to Los Angeles
4 hours, 19 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

United
3h 55m
Spirit
3h 56m
American
3h 58m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM1h2h3h4h
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0123

Flights Per Week

128

Distance

1744 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0200400600

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun051015

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

United
58
American
52
Spirit
16

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is Los Angeles from Chicago by plane?

The distance from Los Angeles to Chicago by plane is 1744 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

How long is the flight from Los Angeles to Chicago?

The flight time from Los Angeles to Chicago is 3 hours, 56 minutes. The time spent in the air is 3 hours, 27 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with United being the fastest taking 3 hours, 55 minutes, and American the slowest taking 3 hours, 58 minutes.

What airlines fly from Los Angeles to Chicago?

American, Spirit, and United are the airlines with direct flights from Los Angeles to Chicago.

Does Southwest fly from Los Angeles to Chicago?

Southwest does not fly from Los Angeles (LAX) 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 Los Angeles 3 minutes early
Taxi Out Time 16 minutes
In the Air 207 minutes
Taxiing In 11 minutes
Arrives Chicago 10 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 Los Angeles to Chicago, Spirit is 79% reliable, which means that Spirit flights are on time 79% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
United 89% 10% 1%
American 85% 14% 1%
Spirit 79% 19% 2%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between Los Angeles 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)
United 17 206 11 235
Spirit 13 208 11 236
American 16 209 11 238

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
9am 1.01
0am 0.62
1pm 0.57
5pm 1.4
10am 1.27
11pm 2.8
5am 0.55
7am 1.99
3pm 0.47
6pm 0.13
6am 1.68
12pm 1.39
4pm 0.68
2pm 0.98
10pm 0.37
8am 1.41
11am 0.73
1am 0.08

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from Los Angeles 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 531
February 476
March 554
April 560
May 596
June 577
July 580
August 601
September 596
October 585
November 502
December 533

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from Los Angeles 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 18.79
Tuesday 18
Wednesday 18
Thursday 18.35
Friday 18.81
Saturday 17.73
Sunday 19

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
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)
9am 16 209 12 240
0am 17 203 10 229
1pm 16 210 16 244
5pm 15 207 7 232
10am 17 206 12 237
11pm 17 206 8 234
5am 15 211 10 236
7am 16 210 12 240
3pm 12 207 11 230
6pm 16 211 7 234
6am 16 209 10 237
12pm 17 209 15 243
4pm 14 204 8 228
2pm 16 198 14 231
10pm 18 207 8 233
8am 18 206 12 239
11am 16 211 13 243
1am 16 205 8 231
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.