The flight time from Washington to Chicago is 2 hours, 5 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves DCA Washington, DC 4 minutes early.
15 minutes taxiing out
1 hour, 36 minutes in the air
12 minutes taxiing in
Arrives ORD Chicago, IL 12 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

United
85%
American
82%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from Washington to Chicago is 2 hours, 5 minutes. The time spent in the air is 1 hour, 36 minutes.

The flight distance from Washington to Chicago is 612 Miles.

Reverse Journey

Chicago to Washington
1 hour, 47 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

American
2h 5m
United
2h 6m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM 30m1h1h 30m2h
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0.00.51.01.52.0

Flights Per Week

116

Distance

612 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0200400

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun051015

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

United
67
American
48

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is Washington from Chicago by plane?

The distance from Washington to Chicago by plane is 612 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

How long is the flight from Washington to Chicago?

The flight time from Washington to Chicago is 2 hours, 5 minutes. The time spent in the air is 1 hour, 36 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with American being the fastest taking 2 hours, 5 minutes, and United the slowest taking 2 hours, 6 minutes.

What airlines fly from Washington to Chicago?

United and American are the airlines with direct flights from Washington to Chicago.

Does Southwest fly from Washington to Chicago?

Southwest does not fly from Washington (DCA) 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 Washington 4 minutes early
Taxi Out Time 15 minutes
In the Air 96 minutes
Taxiing In 12 minutes
Arrives Chicago 12 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 Washington to Chicago, American is 82% reliable, which means that American flights are on time 82% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
United 85% 13% 2%
American 82% 17% 1%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between Washington 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)
American 16 95 11 125
United 15 96 12 126

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
8pm 0.9
8am 0.92
5pm 1.04
6am 1.8
5am 0.04
9pm 0.01
12pm 0.97
6pm 1.27
11am 1.14
3pm 0.86
1pm 0.92
4pm 0.79
10am 1
7am 1.33
7pm 0.82
9am 1.55
2pm 0.87

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from Washington 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 509
February 491
March 499
April 460
May 498
June 500
July 526
August 538
September 520
October 517
November 485
December 492

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from Washington 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 17.19
Tuesday 17.58
Wednesday 17.62
Thursday 17
Friday 17.08
Saturday 13.1
Sunday 16.5

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

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)
8pm 18 95 10 124
8am 18 96 13 130
5pm 15 97 14 129
6am 14 96 10 122
5am 16 97 9 124
9pm 13 92 9 114
12pm 14 96 12 125
6pm 17 96 16 132
11am 14 96 11 122
3pm 16 97 12 126
1pm 13 97 13 125
4pm 14 95 14 127
10am 18 95 11 124
7am 16 96 12 127
7pm 14 95 13 126
9am 14 94 10 120
2pm 16 94 11 123
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.