Flight profile · United Airlines

UA1687

Houston (IAH) to Indianapolis (IND) · scheduled 12:25 PM – 3:42 PM

This page describes how UA1687 has historically performed, which is a different and more useful question when you are deciding what to book. The live position below is a reading from receivers on the ground, not flight status. For today’s status, check with United Airlines.

How UA1687 performs

842 operations, July 2023 – July 2026.

On-time arrivals
83.1%
694 of 835 completed
Cancellation rate
0.59%
5 cancelled
Median arrival delay
-6 min
Average 4.1 min
Severe delays
6.1%
Arrived 60+ minutes late
Delay when late
64 min
Average, when 15+ min late
Departure punctuality
82.9%
Left the gate on time

UA1687 arrived on time 83.1% of the time, against 78.7% for all IAH → IND flights, so this departure is 4.4 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against United Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 4.5 points better.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 842 operations, July 2023 – July 2026 · If UA1687 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.

Where UA1687 is right now

A live reading, only if you ask for it. It is not part of the reliability record above.

Ask for the position of UA1687 right now, if receivers on the ground are hearing it. Nothing is requested until you press the button.

Against the rest of the route

Against the rest of the route
Flight or routeOn timeCancelledMedian delaySevereFlights
UA168783.1%0.59%-6 min6.1%842
United Airlines on IAH → IND78.6%1.32%-4 min7.6%2,274
All IAH → IND flights78.7%1.54%-4 min7.5%2,395

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026

Why UA1687 runs late

Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for UA1687 on IAH → IND. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

Does a late aircraft delay this flight?

How often the plane that flies UA1687 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.

Inbound aircraft late
9%
58 of 667 departures came in 15+ minutes late
Scheduled time on the ground
80 minutes
Median at IAH between the inbound and this departure

The aircraft flying UA1687 came in 15 or more minutes late on 9% of the departures where its previous flight is known. There are not enough departures in both groups to say how the flight left after a late one and after an on-time one.

Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into IAH just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 667 of 837 departures in all. A departure is left out when that flight is unknown, was cancelled or diverted, or the aircraft had sat for more than 12 hours. A flight the airline cancelled never left and is not in the count, and one flown by a substitute aircraft is matched to the aircraft that flew it, not to the one first planned.

Against the network at the same turn length

UA1687 against all flights with a scheduled turn of 60 to 89 minutes
Share of departuresInbound landed 15+ late
UA16879%
Network, same turn17%

The schedule leaves a normal turn: enough time to clean and board if the aircraft is on time, little to spare if it is not.

The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 60 to 89 minutes. How often UA1687’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s. There are not enough departures in both groups to compare how it left.

More: Which Flight Numbers Pay for a Late Aircraft lists the flight numbers that pass a late aircraft on.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

From pushback to gate

When it leaves IAH late, does that still matter by the time it reaches IND?

Leaves the gate
8.0 minutes late
Average over 837 pushbacks
Taxi out at IAH
22.2 min
21.9 min for the airport in this hour
Taxi in at IND
5.9 min
7.0 min for a typical IND arrival
Reaches the gate at IND
4.1 minutes late
Average over 835 arrivals

UA1687 pushes back an average of 8.0 minutes late and reaches the gate at IND an average of 4.1 minutes late. The 3.9 minutes between those two figures are slack the published schedule already carries, which is why a late pushback on this flight does not reliably become a late arrival. Its 22.2 minutes on the taxiways at IAH is about what any departure from the airport in that hour spends.

On arrival at IND, UA1687 spends 5.9 min taxiing from touchdown to the gate — ground time a connecting passenger sits through before they can even leave the aircraft, on top of however late the flight itself ran. That is 1.1 minutes shorter than a typical IND arrival (7.0 min).

Departure delay is averaged over every pushback and arrival delay over every completed arrival, so the two counts differ by the flights that never reached IND. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 36,026 departures from IAH scheduled in the clock hour UA1687 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at IND (147,137 flights), not just UA1687’s own. More on taxi time.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026

The hour it leaves IAH

Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. UA1687 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.

UA168783.1%
All IAH departures, 12 PM–1 PM78.9%
All IAH departures, whole day77.4%

On-time arrival rate. 36,026 departures from IAH are scheduled in the 12 PM–1 PM hour over the period, against 359,450 across the whole day.

UA1687 is scheduled out of IAH at 12:25 PM, in the 12 PM–1 PM bank. Departures from IAH in that hour arrive on time 78.9% of the time against 77.4% across the airport’s whole day, so the hour UA1687 leaves in is an ordinary one for IAH and explains nothing about its record either way.

The two airport figures cover every departure from IAH to every destination, so they describe the slot rather than this journey — the like-for-like comparison against the route is above. Hours are scheduled local, and a number whose schedule moved between banks inside the period has no single hour and is not described here at all. Why the hour matters.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.

Other routes UA1687 has flown

A flight number is a slot in a schedule, and carriers reassign it. These are the other city pairs this number served in the analysis period.

Other routes UA1687 has flown
RouteOperatedFlightsOn time
SAT→IAH San Antonio to HoustonMay 21, 2026 – June 24, 202635—
IND→SFO Indianapolis to San FranciscoMarch 29, 2026 – May 20, 202645—
ATL→IAH Atlanta to HoustonApril 30, 2026 – May 20, 202616—
LAS→IAH Las Vegas to HoustonJanuary 8, 2026 – February 9, 202625—
SFO→IAH San Francisco to HoustonJanuary 7, 2025 – January 5, 202635096.5%
IAH→PHL Houston to PhiladelphiaMay 1–21, 202518—
IAH→DTW Houston to DetroitJanuary 7, 2025 – February 12, 202532—
RNO→IAH Reno to HoustonDecember 19, 2024 – January 6, 202519—
EWR→SNA Newark to Santa AnaJune 27, 2024 – August 18, 202453—
IND→ORD Indianapolis to ChicagoMay 23–24, 20242—
MSY→IAH New Orleans to HoustonSeptember 29, 2023 – January 8, 202474—
MAF→IAH Midland to HoustonJuly 1–31, 202324—
EWR→CHS Newark to CharlestonJuly 2–30, 20235—

Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route UA1687 currently operates. Blending them would produce an average of two different flights.

When it goes wrong

The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.

One arrival in ten is worse than

35 min late

against a median of 6 min early

Arrived an hour or more late6.1%
Typical delay when late64 min
Cancelled0.59%
Landed somewhere else0.24%

Percentiles over 842 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 842 records of UA1687 operating IAH → IND, published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after schedule. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and reported separately. Flight numbers are resolved as carrier plus number plus route, because the same number serves different routes over time.

Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem

Related research: Most and Least Reliable Flight Numbers · The Delay You Inherit · Making Up Time in the Air

Analysis last recomputed