George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) delays & on-time performance
Houston, Texas · 118 nonstop destinations · 11 airlines · Aug 2025 – Jul 2026
No FAA-reported ground stops or delays at IAH right now. Individual flights can still be delayed by the airline; check with your airline for your flight.
On-time arrivals
79%
arrived < 15 min late
Cancelled
1.1%
1,306 flights
Avg arrival delay
17 min
75 min when late
Departed on time
79%
avg taxi-out 21 min
Figures cover 119,020 departures from IAH; on-time is measured at arrival. Arrivals into IAH were on time 81% of the time.
Key facts
- Flights departing George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) arrived on time 79% of the time in Aug 2025 – Jul 2026, better than the 78% national average.
- 1.1% were cancelled, and 8% arrived an hour or more late.
- Delta Air Lines was the most punctual airline here (81% on time); Frontier Airlines was the least (70%).
- Departures scheduled around 5am did best (90% on time); around 5pm did worst (69%).
- The largest source of delay minutes was late-arriving aircraft (37%).
Most delayed routes from IAH
Lowest on-time arrival rates among regularly flown routes.
- JFK · New York68%413 flts
- BOS · Boston72%2,019 flts
- LGA · New York73%4,024 flts
- BNA · Nashville73%1,408 flts
- PIB · Hattiesburg/Laurel73%627 flts
- PNS · Pensacola74%565 flts
- VCT · Victoria74%592 flts
- SHV · Shreveport75%1,202 flts
- EWR · Newark75%3,769 flts
- ASE · Aspen75%624 flts
Most reliable routes from IAH
Highest on-time arrival rates among regularly flown routes.
- SNA · Santa Ana88%1,092 flts
- CLE · Cleveland85%825 flts
- RSW · Fort Myers85%874 flts
- LAX · Los Angeles84%5,220 flts
- MSY · New Orleans84%2,930 flts
- SLC · Salt Lake City83%1,949 flts
- SJU · San Juan83%928 flts
- RDU · Raleigh/Durham83%924 flts
- SAT · San Antonio83%2,406 flts
- PIT · Pittsburgh82%774 flts
Best airline at IAH
Departures from this airport, ranked by on-time arrival.
| Airline | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Routes | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 81% | 1.9% | 17 min | 8 | 8,388 |
| United Airlines | 80% | 0.6% | 13 min | 83 | 74,382 |
| Alaska Airlines | 79% | 0.7% | 12 min | 2 | 1,205 |
| SkyWest Airlines | 77% | 1.0% | 22 min | 73 | 14,030 |
| Envoy Air | 77% | 1.9% | 20 min | 4 | 1,285 |
| American Airlines | 77% | 2.5% | 30 min | 9 | 7,876 |
| Spirit Airlines | 75% | 2.9% | 19 min | 17 | 4,744 |
| Republic Airways | 74% | 4.2% | 20 min | 5 | 913 |
| Frontier Airlines | 70% | 2.2% | 27 min | 19 | 5,062 |
| PSA Airlines | 69% | 5.6% | 40 min | 4 | 463 |
| JetBlue | 53% | 3.9% | 48 min | 3 | 672 |
Best time to fly out of IAH
On-time arrival rate by scheduled departure hour (local time).
- 5am90%3,090 flts
- 6am88%4,588 flts
- 7am89%12,080 flts
- 8am85%3,846 flts
- 9am83%7,845 flts
- 10am79%5,788 flts
- 11am79%4,809 flts
- 12pm80%12,084 flts
- 1pm74%2,250 flts
- 2pm78%9,783 flts
- 3pm78%2,247 flts
- 4pm75%10,137 flts
- 5pm69%3,516 flts
- 6pm72%14,976 flts
- 7pm72%5,984 flts
- 8pm74%11,058 flts
- 9pm79%3,089 flts
- 10pm80%1,677 flts
Monthly trend
Why departures were late
- Late-arriving aircraft37%
- Airline (crew, maintenance, cleaning, fueling)33%
- Air traffic control & airport congestion24%
- Extreme weather6%
- Security0%
Data: U.S. DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Aug 2025 – Jul 2026 (12 months). Latest month published by BTS: July 2026. How we calculate this.