The flight time from San Francisco to Chicago is 4 hours, 7 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves SFO San Francisco, CA 1 minute early.
20 minutes taxiing out
3 hours, 34 minutes in the air
11 minutes taxiing in
Arrives ORD Chicago, IL 6 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

American
88%
United
83%
Alaska
80%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from San Francisco to Chicago is 4 hours, 7 minutes. The time spent in the air is 3 hours, 34 minutes.

The flight distance from San Francisco to Chicago is 1846 Miles.

Reverse Journey

Chicago to San Francisco
4 hours, 33 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

United
4h 5m
American
4h 8m
Alaska
4h 15m
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

91

Distance

1846 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0100200300400

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun0510

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

United
64
American
16
Alaska
10

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is San Francisco from Chicago by plane?

The distance from San Francisco to Chicago by plane is 1846 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

How long is the flight from San Francisco to Chicago?

The flight time from San Francisco to Chicago is 4 hours, 7 minutes. The time spent in the air is 3 hours, 34 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with United being the fastest taking 4 hours, 5 minutes, and Alaska the slowest taking 4 hours, 15 minutes.

What airlines fly from San Francisco to Chicago?

Alaska, American, and United are the airlines with direct flights from San Francisco to Chicago.

Does Southwest fly from San Francisco to Chicago?

Southwest does not fly from San Francisco (SFO) 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 San Francisco 1 minute early
Taxi Out Time 20 minutes
In the Air 214 minutes
Taxiing In 11 minutes
Arrives Chicago 6 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 San Francisco to Chicago, American is 88% reliable, which means that American flights are on time 88% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
American 88% 12% 0%
United 83% 16% 1%
Alaska 80% 20% 0%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between San Francisco 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 20 213 10 245
American 17 217 12 248
Alaska 20 218 14 255

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 1.01
3pm 0.34
9am 0.1
11am 0.35
0am 0.04
1pm 0.58
5pm 0.4
10pm 0.65
8am 1.03
2pm 0.32
6am 1.78
12pm 1.33
4pm 0.98
7am 0.44
6pm 0.55
5am 0.83
11pm 2.29

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from San Francisco 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 314
February 276
March 375
April 405
May 436
June 468
July 466
August 489
September 431
October 418
November 352
December 351

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from San Francisco 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 13.58
Tuesday 12.46
Wednesday 12.9
Thursday 13.67
Friday 13.54
Saturday 12
Sunday 13.79

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
Alaska 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 23 214 13 252
3pm 18 212 10 243
9am 21 218 15 256
11am 25 220 17 262
0am 17 212 10 239
1pm 20 211 16 250
5pm 17 213 8 239
10pm 23 214 8 247
8am 22 211 12 247
2pm 18 215 12 247
6am 19 217 12 248
12pm 19 215 16 252
4pm 22 213 8 245
7am 17 217 13 248
6pm 18 214 7 240
5am 16 216 11 244
11pm 20 213 8 242
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.