O’Hare posts best June on-time departure rate in a decade

O’Hare International Airport posted its best June on-time departure rate in at least a decade, data released Wednesday showed.

More than 77 percent of flights took off from O’Hare on time in June, boosting its national departure ranking for that one month from second worst in the nation last year to No. 15.

Its arrival rate in June was even better, with nearly 80 percent of those flights pulling in on time. That marked O’Hare’s second best rate for June in at least a decade, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. It placed O’Hare ninth nationally in June on-time arrivals.

A year ago, critics were charging that an $8.7 billion ongoing overhaul of O’Hare’s airfield had yet to reduce delays as promised. Its on-time performance seemed stuck near the bottom of the nation’s 29 busiest airports.

Some interpreted Wednesday’s data as indicating the overhaul — particularly a fifth east-west parallel runway added in October 2015 — could be starting to make a difference.

Chicago Aviation Department spokesman Owen Kilmer said the latest runway “added significant capacity to the airfield and increased the airport’s ability to recover from weather-related events.”

Even more improvements are expected after O’Hare opens the next and last runway in 2020, Kilmer said.

American Airlines spokeswoman Leslie Scott noted that even using a longer measuring stick — data from the first half of 2016 — O’Hare’s on-time arrival and departure rates both showed a solid uptick compared to January through June of 2015.

During that six-month period, O’Hare’s on-time departure rate improved from dead last, at 70 percent, to 78 percent. Its on-time arrival rate grew from more than 72 percent, second-to-last, to more than 81 percent.

“Those first six months include January, February and March, when, historically, it’s hard to operate here. You’ve got snow, you’ve got ice,’’ Scott said.

“I think that shows you that it’s probably not a fluke — that the trend is there.”

Although only 5 percent of O’Hare flights were expected to use the newest runway, Scott agreed with Kilmer that the airstrip gives airlines the ability to land more flights at crunch times — during peak-volume periods and bad weather.

“Having an additional runway gives us more flexibility, so that’s going to improve operational statistics,’’ Scott said.

Both Scott and United Airlines spokesman Charles Hobart said their airlines have instituted operational changes in the last year that also could be helping to reduce delays. At American, that includes new planes that are reducing the age of its fleet.

At United, improvements include new mobile technology for ramp and customer service workers and scheduling changes, Hobart said.

Hobart also noted that O’Hare saw thunderstorms on nine of the first 10 days of June 2015. In comparison, June of this year saw only four days of thunderstorms.

Federal officials define “on-time” as arriving or departing a gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.

Chicago’s Midway Airport also showed improvements in its June and six-month statistics. Its best performance drew a No. 9 rank nationally, based on 84 percent of its arrivals coming in on time during the first six months of this year.