The 760-mile flight lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes from wheels up in Philadelphia to wheels down at O'Hare, according to a flight-tracking service. But the final 5 to 7 miles taxiing on the ground from 10 Right to the gate ate up an additional 30 minutes, according to monitoring by flightaware.com. And that's without stop-and-go, gridlock-level congestion on the airfield that would occur if flight volumes grow at O'Hare in the years ahead.

Officials at United Airlines said the taxi times during the less than three weeks since 10 Right opened are about what the airline expected. The taxi-in times to United gates have averaged 16 to 18 minutes, United spokesman Luke Punzenberger said. The taxi distance to United gates is shorter than the distance to American's gates, and the Lima Lima construction is not as much of a factor.

Flight 1333 finally arrived at the gate — 2 hours and 18 minutes after taking off from Philly — at 7:11 p.m., which, thanks to all the extra "block time'' airlines build into their schedules to compensate for delays, congestion and inefficiencies, was only two minutes after its scheduled gate arrival time. Flights arriving within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time are considered on time by the U.S. Department of Transportation.