Metro area · Houston
Which Houston airport should you fly from?
IAH and HOU compared on 531,674 departures, July 2023 – July 2026: how often flights arrive on time, how often they are cancelled, how long they taxi, and how all of it changes with the time of day. Add a destination to compare the routes each airport flies there.
Enter an airport code. You get the route from each of IAH, HOU to it, side by side. The suggestions are places at least two of these airports fly to.
Flying to Atlanta (ATL)
The route from IAH and HOU to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, over each route's own period.
HOU is the best of these on the figures: clearly ahead on on-time arrival, cancellation rate, and severe delays, and no other airport is clearly ahead on any of the three.
HOU is clearly ahead on 4 of 4 rates.
| Metric | IAH | HOU |
|---|---|---|
| On-time arrival | 76.7% | 81.7% (better) |
| Cancellation rate | 1.67% | 1.15% (better) |
| Severe delay (60+ min) | 8.7% | 6.4% (better) |
| Average arrival delay | 10 min | 7 min (better) |
| Median arrival delay | -5 min | -7 min (better) |
| Departure on-time | 77.1% | 79.2% (better) |
| Flights analyzed | 14,350 | 9,619 |
A check mark and green mark the best figure in a row (higher for on-time rates, lower for delays and cancellations) when it is clearly better than the other’s: a two-proportion test on each airport’s flight count, at about 95% confidence. Otherwise the row says “too close to call”. Average and median delay carry no sample-error estimate here, so they are marked by the printed figure alone.
- On-time arrival. HOU is clearly higher: HOU 81.7%, IAH 76.7% (5.0 points from best to worst).
- Cancellation rate. HOU is clearly lower: HOU 1.15%, IAH 1.67% (0.52 points from best to worst).
- Severe delay (60+ min). HOU is clearly lower: HOU 6.4%, IAH 8.7% (2.3 points from best to worst).
| Route | Flights a day | Miles | Largest airline |
|---|---|---|---|
| IAH → ATL14,350 flights, July 2023 – July 2026 | 12.7 | 689 | Delta Air Lines51% of flights |
| HOU → ATL9,619 flights, July 2023 – July 2026 | 8.5 | 696 | Southwest Airlines52% of flights |
The airlines differ: IAH is 51% Delta Air Lines and HOU is 52% Southwest Airlines. A gap between airports can be a gap between airlines.
The same airline from different airports
- Delta Air Lines flies it from IAH and HOU: IAH 81.7% (7,359 flights), HOU 84.4% (4,626 flights); HOU is clearly better on time.
Airline figures need 200 flights on the route and use the same test. The airline is the same, so a gap is not about who flies; the flights each carries still differ.
By departure time
| Leaving | IAH | HOU |
|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 85.8%4,341 flights | 92.0% (best)2,294 flights |
| 9 AM–12 PM | 80.4%2,300 flights | 86.2% (best)1,917 flights |
| 12–3 PM | 76.3%2,644 flights | 80.7% (best)1,624 flights |
| 3–6 PM | 68.1%2,032 flights | 74.8% (best)1,836 flights |
| 6–9 PM | 67.3%2,886 flights | 72.6% (best)1,799 flights |
| 9 PM–5 AM | 58.7%147 flights | 70.9% (best)149 flights |
A window needs 120 flights on the route to be scored. 6 of the 6 windows with two or more scored airports have a clear leader; a route is a small sample next to a whole airport, so the rest cannot be called.
How the best airport is chosen. An airport is called best only when it is clearly ahead on at least two of on-time arrival, cancellation rate and severe delay, and no other airport is clearly ahead on any of them. A lead the flight counts cannot separate from chance is reported as too close to call, which a route with a few thousand flights produces often.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Each route is measured over its own period. Departures from IAH and HOU only.
What stands out in the Houston area
Each line is worked out from the figures below. A lead is claimed only where it is larger than chance.
- On-time arrivalHOU had the best on-time arrival rate, 78.8%, ahead of IAH at 77.4%. Best to worst is 1.4 points.
- CancellationsIAH cancelled 1.46% of its flights, 1.4 times the rate at HOU (1.05%).
- Taxi timeTaxi-out averages 20.1 min at IAH and 12.7 min at HOU, 7.5 minutes more between pushback and wheels-up. Coming in, taxi time runs from 5.8 min at HOU to 10.7 min at IAH.
- Time of dayThe best airport depends on when you leave: clearly ahead HOU at 5–9 AM, 9 AM–12 PM, and 6–9 PM and IAH at 12–3 PM, 3–6 PM, and 9 PM–5 AM. The gap is widest for departures at 9 PM–5 AM (IAH 76.7% against HOU 68.0%) and narrowest at 3–6 PM (0.8 points).
- Hour by hourThe biggest swing through the day is at HOU: 5 AM–6 AM reached 94.3% on time (6,390 flights) and 10 PM–11 PM fell to 65.0% (7,104), 29.3 points apart.
- AirlinesSouthwest Airlines flies 92% of departures from HOU, and one carrier also flies more than half at IAH. The largest carrier at each: Southwest Airlines at HOU (92%) and United Airlines at IAH (61%). Carriers with 500 or more departures at only one of them: United Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and American Airlines at IAH and Allegiant Air at HOU.
- Destinations83 destinations outside the metro area get 750 or more flights from these airports; 38 of them from at least two and 38 from every airport. IAH alone serves 35 destinations (35% of its departures), including Chicago (ORD), Newark (EWR), and San Francisco (SFO).
- Same destinationsOn the 38 destinations every airport serves, on-time arrival runs from 77.7% at IAH to 78.9% at HOU: 1.2 points, about the same as the 1.4 points over all their flights; HOU leads clearly.
IAH and HOU side by side
Every flight that left each airport, July 2023 – July 2026. The same measures as the compare tool, so a figure here is the figure there.
HOU is clearly ahead on 3 of 4 rates, IAH on 1.
A check mark and green mark the best figure in a row (higher for on-time rates, lower for delays and cancellations) when it is clearly better than the other’s: a two-proportion test on each airport’s flight count, at about 95% confidence. Otherwise the row says “too close to call”. Average and median delay carry no sample-error estimate here, so they are marked by the printed figure alone.
Share of the metro is each airport’s part of the 531,674 departures at these 2 airports. Taxi-out is pushback to wheels-up on departure and taxi-in is touchdown to gate on arrival, averaged over all flights. The score is the FlyerIntel Reliability Score, 0 to 100.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Departing flights only.
By departure time
On-time arrival for flights leaving in each part of the day, at each airport.
| Leaving | IAH | HOU | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 88.0%68,329 flights | 92.0% (best)39,704 flights | 4.0 pts |
| 9 AM–12 PM | 80.8%57,950 flights | 85.1% (best)27,670 flights | 4.3 pts |
| 12–3 PM | 77.2% (best)74,155 flights | 75.9%29,173 flights | 1.3 pts |
| 3–6 PM | 72.2% (best)44,500 flights | 71.4%26,742 flights | 0.8 pts |
| 6–9 PM | 70.8%99,661 flights | 71.6% (best)32,610 flights | 0.8 pts |
| 9 PM–5 AM | 76.7% (best)14,855 flights | 68.0%16,325 flights | 8.7 pts |
A window needs at least 120 flights at an airport to be scored. The check mark uses the same test as the table above. Gap is best minus worst among the scored airports.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Windows are the scheduled local departure time at each airport.
Best and worst hour
On-time arrival by scheduled departure hour, for the hours with enough flights to score.
| Airport | Best hour | Worst hour | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|
| IAH19 hours scored | 5 AM–6 AM90.5% · 9,895 flights | 5 PM–6 PM68.4% · 9,843 flights | 22.1 pts |
| HOU18 hours scored | 5 AM–6 AM94.3% · 6,390 flights | 10 PM–11 PM65.0% · 7,104 flights | 29.3 pts |
IAH
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 90.5% on time from 9,895 flights
- 6 AM: 88.3% on time from 14,228 flights
- 7 AM: 87.9% on time from 33,814 flights
- 8 AM: 85.5% on time from 10,392 flights
- 9 AM: 82.7% on time from 27,050 flights
- 10 AM: 79.4% on time from 16,297 flights
- 11 AM: 78.7% on time from 14,603 flights
- 12 PM: 78.9% on time from 36,026 flights
- 1 PM: 73.4% on time from 7,119 flights
- 2 PM: 76.1% on time from 31,010 flights
- 3 PM: 75.0% on time from 6,828 flights
- 4 PM: 72.8% on time from 27,829 flights
- 5 PM: 68.4% on time from 9,843 flights
- 6 PM: 71.0% on time from 46,257 flights
- 7 PM: 69.1% on time from 19,050 flights
- 8 PM: 71.5% on time from 34,354 flights
- 9 PM: 76.3% on time from 9,895 flights
- 10 PM: 77.2% on time from 4,383 flights
- 11 PM: 79.5% on time from 568 flights
HOU
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 94.3% on time from 6,390 flights
- 6 AM: 93.4% on time from 8,904 flights
- 7 AM: 91.8% on time from 7,722 flights
- 8 AM: 90.6% on time from 16,688 flights
- 9 AM: 89.4% on time from 7,348 flights
- 10 AM: 84.7% on time from 11,139 flights
- 11 AM: 82.2% on time from 9,183 flights
- 12 PM: 79.2% on time from 8,542 flights
- 1 PM: 78.3% on time from 9,512 flights
- 2 PM: 71.4% on time from 11,119 flights
- 3 PM: 71.4% on time from 9,091 flights
- 4 PM: 71.5% on time from 9,845 flights
- 5 PM: 71.4% on time from 7,806 flights
- 6 PM: 73.2% on time from 11,094 flights
- 7 PM: 69.5% on time from 8,991 flights
- 8 PM: 71.6% on time from 12,525 flights
- 9 PM: 70.3% on time from 9,213 flights
- 10 PM: 65.0% on time from 7,104 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Each chart has its own scale, so read the numbers in the table, not the bar heights, when comparing airports. The best and worst of 24 hours are the two extremes, so a small airport’s best hour is partly luck; the flight count is beside each. A swing under 3 points, or one the two hours’ flight counts cannot separate from chance, is marked as within noise.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Hours are the scheduled local departure hour. An hour needs at least 120 flights to be scored.
Where each airport is strongest
Where it is clearly better than every other airport here, where it flies, and who flies there.
IAH Houston
Clearly best on departure on-time. Clearly ahead for departures at 12–3 PM, 3–6 PM, and 9 PM–5 AM.
Busiest destinations
| To | A day | Share |
|---|---|---|
| ORD Chicago | 15.1 | 4.7% |
| DFW Dallas–Fort Worth | 15.0 | 4.7% |
| LAX Los Angeles | 14.6 | 4.6% |
| DEN Denver | 13.3 | 4.2% |
| ATL Atlanta | 12.7 | 4.0% |
| LGA New York | 11.0 | 3.4% |
73 destinations with 750 or more flights carry 96% of its departures. 35 of them are served by no other airport here (35% of departures), the largest Chicago (ORD), Newark (EWR), and San Francisco (SFO).
Airlines
| Airline | Share | On time |
|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 61% | 78.0% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 11% | 77.0% |
| Delta Air Lines | 7.0% | 81.7% |
| Spirit Airlines | 6.4% | 75.8% |
| American Airlines | 6.3% | 76.1% |
United Airlines flies 61% of departures, over the 50% that makes an airport that carrier’s. With 500 or more departures only here: United Airlines, Spirit Airlines, American Airlines, and Alaska Airlines.
HOU Houston
Clearly best on on-time arrival, cancellations, and severe delays. Clearly ahead for departures at 5–9 AM, 9 AM–12 PM, and 6–9 PM.
Busiest destinations
| To | A day | Share |
|---|---|---|
| DAL Dallas | 11.2 | 7.4% |
| ATL Atlanta | 8.5 | 5.6% |
| DEN Denver | 7.0 | 4.6% |
| MSY New Orleans | 6.3 | 4.1% |
| DFW Dallas–Fort Worth | 6.0 | 3.9% |
| PHX Phoenix | 5.7 | 3.8% |
48 destinations with 750 or more flights carry 96% of its departures. 10 of them are served by no other airport here (20% of departures), the largest Dallas (DAL), Chicago (MDW), and Harlingen (HRL).
Airlines
| Airline | Share | On time |
|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 92% | 78.8% |
| Delta Air Lines | 2.7% | 84.4% |
| Envoy Air | 2.5% | 79.5% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 0.9% | 73.1% |
| Allegiant Air | 0.6% | 71.8% |
Southwest Airlines flies 92% of departures, over the 50% that makes an airport that carrier’s. With 500 or more departures only here: Allegiant Air.
Airlines are the operating carrier, so a regional airline flying for a larger one is listed under its own name. Only airlines with at least 500 departures at an airport are listed there.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
Holding the destination or the airline still
Two ways to take one reason for a gap out of the comparison.
Destinations every airport serves
38 places get 750 or more flights from each of IAH and HOU. Counting only flights to those places (61% of IAH’s and 76% of HOU’s departures):
| Measure | IAH | HOU |
|---|---|---|
| On-time arrival | 77.7% | 78.9% (best) |
| Cancellation rate | 1.46% | 1.00% (best) |
| Severe delay (60+ min) | 8.7% | 6.0% (best) |
| Flights | 218,683 | 131,347 |
The shared places: Albuquerque (ABQ), Atlanta (ATL), Austin (AUS), Birmingham (BHM), Nashville (BNA), Baltimore (BWI), Columbus (CMH), Corpus Christi (CRP), Washington (DCA), Denver (DEN), Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Indianapolis (IND), Jacksonville (JAX), and 24 more.
The same airline at different airports
Where one airline flies from several of these airports, its own on-time rate at each. The airline is the same, so a gap is not about who flies, though the routes each flies from an airport still differ.
| Airline | IAH | HOU |
|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 82.9% (best)5,853 flights | 78.8%159,275 flights |
| SkyWest Airlines | 77.0% (best)41,311 flights | 73.1%1,536 flights |
| Delta Air Lines | 81.7%24,991 flights | 84.4% (best)4,629 flights |
| Frontier Airlines | 65.8%11,550 flights | 72.4% (best)592 flights |
| Envoy Air · too close to call | 77.8%4,295 flights | 79.5%4,314 flights |
| PSA Airlines | 69.3%574 flights | 75.5% (best)909 flights |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Same test as above. A dash means the airline has fewer than 500 departures at that airport.
What these figures do not compare
Reasons two airports can differ that have nothing to do with how well either is run.
- Different airlines. United Airlines flies 61% of IAH’s departures; Southwest Airlines flies 92% of HOU’s departures. An airline brings its own schedule, aircraft and habits to an airport, so part of every gap above is a gap between carriers.
- Different destinations. 35% of IAH’s departures and 20% of HOU’s departures go to places no other airport here serves. An on-time arrival is counted at the far end, so weather and congestion at the destination are in the figure.
- Different trip lengths. The average route, weighted by flights, is 969 miles from IAH and 724 miles from HOU. Short regional hops and long coast-to-coast flights fail in different ways.
- Ground time belongs to the airport. Taxi-out and the share of flights that push back on time measure the airport itself. On-time arrival measures the whole trip.
- History, not a forecast. These are flights from July 2023 – July 2026. A storm cancels hundreds of flights together, so a clear gap is a statement about this sample, not a promise about your trip.
Analysis last recomputed
How the metro areas are chosen and what a lead means: how this works. All figures are from the methodology the airport pages use.
Other metro areas
- New York (LGA, EWR, JFK)
- Chicago (ORD, MDW)
- Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW, DAL)
- Los Angeles (LAX, SNA, BUR, ONT)
- Washington (DCA, BWI, IAD)
- San Francisco (SFO, SJC, OAK)
- Miami (MIA, FLL)