Live flights at O'Hare International Airport (ORD)

ORD KORD  Chicago, United States

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… aircraft nearby

ORD at a glance

  • What it is: O'Hare International Airport is one of the world's busiest airports serving Chicago, United States.
  • Codes: ORD on your ticket, KORD on the radar.
  • How busy: the reference profile lists about 80.0 million annual passengers across 8 runways.
  • Main airline: American Airlines bases aircraft here, along with 1 other carrier.
  • Right now: 85 aircraft are within 55 km, shown live on the map above.
  • Local time zone: America/Chicago (UTC-5), so every time shown for ORD is local rather than UTC.

Aircraft observed near ORD

85 aircraft are within 55 km of ORD right now. This is live ADS-B traffic, not a published timetable: aircraft are classified by what they are physically doing - Climbing out, on approach, or holding at cruise overhead. For gate numbers and scheduled times, check with ORD directly or your airline.

Departing now

FlightOperatorRouteStatusAltitudeSpeed
UAL1049 United Airlines CUN → EWR on stand or taxiing — 4 kts
UAL530 United Airlines route not published on stand or taxiing — 8 kts
AAL1022 American Airlines route not published on stand or taxiing — —
UAL1793 United Airlines route not published on stand or taxiing — 16 kts
AAL2849 American Airlines route not published on stand or taxiing — —
AAL967 American Airlines route not published on stand or taxiing — —
ENY4103 — route not published on stand or taxiing — 10 kts
SKW5557 — SBA → SFO on stand or taxiing — 22 kts

Arriving now

FlightOperatorRouteStatusAltitudeSpeed
SKW5735 — route not published on approach 775 ft 130 kts
UAL426 United Airlines route not published on approach 800 ft 133 kts
SKW5449 — route not published on approach 1,025 ft 136 kts
SKW5432 — route not published on approach 850 ft 122 kts
SKW4803 — route not published on approach 950 ft 130 kts
SKW4742 — route not published on approach 1,575 ft 121 kts
UAL1414 United Airlines route not published on approach 1,925 ft 128 kts
UAL2752 United Airlines route not published on approach 2,600 ft 127 kts

Overhead and in the area

FlightOperatorRouteStatusAltitudeSpeed
UAL411 United Airlines route not published in the area 4,875 ft 229 kts
ENY3571 — DFW → BMI in the area 10,900 ft 390 kts
UAL1488 United Airlines route not published in the area 4,900 ft 293 kts
N117HD — route not published in the area 1,275 ft 129 kts
AAL3324 American Airlines route not published in the area 3,900 ft 171 kts
CXK170 — route not published in the area 1,725 ft 101 kts
UAL1540 United Airlines route not published in the area 3,900 ft 166 kts
JAL56 Japan Airlines route not published in the area 4,900 ft 237 kts
80.0M
Annual passengers (reference)
8
Runways
4
Terminals
672 ft
Field elevation

About ORD

A dual hub for United and American Airlines and frequently the busiest airport in the world by aircraft movements. Its eight runways are the most of any civil airport. O'Hare's ORD code comes from the airfield's original name, Orchard Field.

Unusual aircraft we have tracked at ORD

Ranked by how rarely we identify the type anywhere, so the widebodies rise above the daily narrowbodies. Registrations are the individual airframes we logged, not a schedule.

AircraftTypeRegistrationOperator
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner B78X PH-BKC KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
Boeing 747-8 B748 HL7624 Korean Air
Boeing 747-400 B744 N701CK Kalitta Air
Boeing 757-200 B752 N48127 United Airlines
Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner B788 N813AN American Airlines
Boeing 767-300ER B763 N657UA United Airlines

O'Hare began as Orchard Place, a site northwest of Chicago where Douglas built C-54 transports during the Second World War. The city acquired the field after the war as a successor to cramped Midway. In 1949 it was renamed for Lieutenant Commander Edward "Butch" O'Hare, a Chicago-born Navy ace awarded the Medal of Honor.

The airport code ORD still preserves the old Orchard name. Commercial airlines shifted over from Midway in the late 1950s as the jet age demanded longer runways. By the early 1960s O'Hare had seized the title of the world's busiest airport, a crown it held for most of the next three decades.

United and American both built enormous hubs at O'Hare. The airport pioneered ideas from dual parallel taxiways to the futuristic United Terminal 1 by Helmut Jahn, opened in 1987 with its neon-lit underground walkway. The International Terminal 5 followed in 1993. Chronic delays from crossing runways led to the O'Hare Modernization Program, which between 2005 and 2021 rebuilt the airfield into six parallel east-west runways plus two diagonals. The next act, O'Hare 21, includes satellite concourses and a new Global Terminal replacing Terminal 2.

How ORD operates today

O'Hare runs one of the world's most intricate operations across eight runways, six of them parallel east-west strips that allow triple simultaneous arrivals in good weather. United and American operate competing hubs from Terminals 1, 2, and 3, while Terminal 5 handles most international arrivals plus Delta and JetBlue.

The Airport Transit System train links terminals and remote parking. O'Hare is also a top-tier cargo airport, with a large freight complex on the south side. Weather in Chicago remains the great equalizer, and deicing operations here are among the largest anywhere.

Top routes from ORD

DestinationMain airlinesWhy it matters
New York LaGuardia (LGA) United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines The Chicago-New York shuttle is one of the oldest and busiest business corridors in US aviation.
Los Angeles (LAX) United Airlines, American Airlines A transcontinental heavyweight with premium-configured jets competing head to head.
Denver (DEN) United Airlines, American Airlines, Frontier Airlines Hub-to-hub United flying makes this one of the country's highest-capacity domestic routes.
San Francisco (SFO) United Airlines, American Airlines Links United's Midwest fortress with its West Coast international gateway.
London Heathrow (LHR) United Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways Chicago's flagship transatlantic route, served by multiple daily widebodies.

Facts about ORD

  • The code ORD comes from the airport's original name, Orchard Place, not from O'Hare.
  • It is named for Butch O'Hare, a Medal of Honor-winning Navy fighter ace from Chicago killed in action in 1943.
  • O'Hare was the world's busiest airport for roughly three decades, from the early 1960s until Atlanta overtook it in the 1990s.
  • With eight runways, O'Hare has more than any other major airport in the world.

Plane spotting at ORD

Chicago spotters cluster around the forest preserve lots and roads under the east-west approach corridors, and upper floors of airport hotels along the Kennedy Expressway side offer wide panoramas of the parallel runway flows. New to spotting? Start with our aircraft identification guide and the world's best spotting airports.

IATA / ICAO
ORD / KORD
Location
Chicago, United States 41.974, -87.907
Time zone
America/Chicago
Opened
1944
Hub for
United Airlines, American Airlines
Website
www.flychicago.com

Airlines hubbed at ORD

AA · AAL American Airlines United States
UA · UAL United Airlines United States

Tracked flights using ORD

Selected scheduled services whose curated route starts, ends or stops at O'Hare International Airport.

FlightRouteTypical aircraft
AA2919 EWR → ORD Boeing 737-800Track AA2919 →
UA2497 ORD → BOS Airbus A321Track UA2497 →
SK944 ORD → CPH Airbus A330-300Track SK944 →
UA2127 LGA → ORD Boeing 757-200Track UA2127 →
DL1244 LGA → ORD Boeing 737-800Track DL1244 →
AA215 CUN → ORD Boeing 737 MAX 8Track AA215 →
DL1477 ORD → ATL Boeing 737-800Track DL1477 →
AI126 ORD → DEL Boeing 777-300ERTrack AI126 →

Nearby and related airports

Geographically close airports and useful alternatives in United States.

MDW Chicago Midway International Airport Chicago, United States
IND Indianapolis International Airport Indianapolis, United States
DTW Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport Detroit, United States
MSP Minneapolis - Saint Paul International Airport Minneapolis, United States
MEM Memphis International Airport Memphis, United States
IAD Washington Dulles International Airport Washington, United States
CLT Charlotte Douglas International Airport Charlotte, United States
ATL Hartsfield - Jackson Atlanta International Airport Atlanta, United States

More airports and guides connected to ORD

Most of the tails you see here belong to American Airlines. It ranks among the world's busiest fields, which we compare in the busiest airports ranked. Nearby, Chicago (MDW) serves the same country. The codes ORD and KORD are explained in airport codes decoded.

Data sources and review

Reviewed 2026-07-29 by Flight-Tracker.net Editorial Team

Passenger, runway, terminal and hub figures are maintained as a reviewed reference snapshot, not a live operational record. Check the airport directly before travelling.

Read our airport data sourcing and review process, or inspect the machine-readable reference dataset.

Frequently asked questions about ORD

What is the airport code for O'Hare International Airport?

O'Hare International Airport uses the IATA code ORD on tickets and baggage tags, and the ICAO code KORD in flight plans and on radar. The leading “K” in KORD is the region marker: ICAO codes are grouped geographically, which is why airports near each other usually share their first letter or two while their IATA codes look unrelated.

How many runways does ORD have?

O'Hare International Airport operates 8 runways across 4 passenger terminals. The field sits at 672 ft above sea level.

How busy is ORD?

This reference profile lists roughly 80.0 million annual passengers for O'Hare International Airport. You can see aircraft observed departing, arriving and overhead on this page, taken from live ADS-B broadcasts.

Which airlines are based at ORD?

American Airlines, United Airlines treat ORD as a hub or major base. Many other carriers serve the airport without basing aircraft there.

How many terminals does ORD have?

This reference lists O'Hare International Airport with 4 passenger terminals. Check the airport or operating airline for the terminal assigned to a specific flight.

What time zone is ORD in?

O'Hare International Airport runs on America/Chicago, currently UTC-5. Flight trackers work in UTC internally, so the seven-day history on our flight pages is stamped UTC while the boards on this page are in ORD local time - worth remembering when the two disagree by a whole calendar day.

Can I track flights at ORD live?

Yes. The map on this page shows every aircraft broadcasting its position within about 55 km of O'Hare International Airport, and there are 85 in range as this page loaded. The boards split them into departures, arrivals and traffic passing overhead, all timed in America/Chicago.