Route profile
AUS→IAH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Austin to Houston, 140 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 46% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,507 flights. How this is calculated
AUS → IAH arrives on time 78.5% of the time; the return trip, IAH → AUS, arrives on time 76.4% of the time, a 2.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
AUS → IAH spends 31.5 minutes on the ground on a 140-mile trip: 21.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at AUS and 10.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAH.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 95% of 2,692 comparable routes.
SkyWest Airlines (79.5% on time) and United Airlines (78.4%) are close together here.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where AUS to IAH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
AUS to IAH struggles most at 7 AM: 75.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 14 points behind the 89.1% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.7 points.
AUS to IAH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 82.4% arrive on time, 9.1 points ahead of the 73.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.6 points.
Tuesday is the day AUS to IAH slips furthest against routes of similar length, 80.2% on time where they average 83.2%, 3 points lower.
In October, AUS to IAH runs 11.3 points below routes of similar length, 73.7% on time to 85.0%. Against all other routes the gap is 9.3 points.
January is kinder to AUS to IAH than to routes of similar length: 86.5% on time against 80.7%, 5.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
AUS to IAH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 75.1% | routes of similar length | 89.1% | −14.0 pts | 1,106 here, 7,211 there |
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 82.4% | routes of similar length | 73.3% | +9.1 pts | 911 here, 5,051 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 80.2% | routes of similar length | 83.2% | −3.0 pts | 1,038 here, 14,348 there |
| Month: October | 73.7% | routes of similar length | 85.0% | −11.3 pts | 661 here, 9,223 there |
| Month: January | 86.5% | routes of similar length | 80.7% | +5.8 pts | 578 here, 7,850 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 140 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why AUS → IAH flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
AUS → IAH cancelled 111 of 7,507 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 68. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 47.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 142 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 111 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
53 cancellations, 47.7% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
44 cancellations, 39.6% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
14 cancellations, 12.6% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
111 coded cancellations were recorded on AUS → IAH; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
37 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 7,507 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAH after arriving from AUS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.7% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.7% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.48% of the time and diverts 0.09% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,389 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 37 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,507 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
AUS → IAH flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 84.2% of the time, against 68.1% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 16.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 94.7% on time from 959 flights
- 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 75.1% on time from 1,125 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 83.1% on time from 1,038 flights
- 10 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 76.4% on time from 570 flights
- 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 81.9% on time from 711 flights
- 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 67.8% on time from 924 flights
- 5 PM: 67.8% on time from 780 flights
- 6 PM: 65.4% on time from 326 flights
- 7 PM: 82.4% on time from 923 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why AUS → IAH runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for AUS → IAH. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on AUS → IAH, at 41.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 84.2% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 68.1%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 7,214 | 78.4% | 1.51% | -3 min | 6.7% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 293 | 79.5% | 0.68% | -5 min | 8.0% |
United Airlines flew 96.1% of the 7,507 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.5%
- Feb: 88.5%
- Mar: 81.3%
- Apr: 79.6%
- May: 71.6%
- Jun: 70.9%
- Jul: 72.4%
- Aug: 78.5%
- Sep: 78.1%
- Oct: 73.7%
- Nov: 78.6%
- Dec: 84.6%
June is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 17.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 71.6% from 225 flights
- August 2023: 81.8% from 183 flights
- September 2023: 70.8% from 187 flights
- October 2023: 77.6% from 211 flights
- November 2023: 87.2% from 164 flights
- December 2023: 90.1% from 152 flights
- January 2024: 77.6% from 159 flights
- February 2024: 89.2% from 158 flights
- March 2024: 83.9% from 194 flights
- April 2024: 81.1% from 148 flights
- May 2024: 71.7% from 165 flights
- June 2024: 75.3% from 183 flights
- July 2024: 70.4% from 193 flights
- August 2024: 81.8% from 187 flights
- September 2024: 86.6% from 187 flights
- October 2024: 82.7% from 215 flights
- November 2024: 83.4% from 214 flights
- December 2024: 82.9% from 190 flights
- January 2025: 86.7% from 207 flights
- February 2025: 82.8% from 204 flights
- March 2025: 85.1% from 235 flights
- April 2025: 80.7% from 229 flights
- May 2025: 76.7% from 234 flights
- June 2025: 69.8% from 200 flights
- July 2025: 71.0% from 188 flights
- August 2025: 72.7% from 213 flights
- September 2025: 77.1% from 237 flights
- October 2025: 62.0% from 237 flights
- November 2025: 67.4% from 221 flights
- December 2025: 82.3% from 232 flights
- January 2026: 92.2% from 239 flights
- February 2026: 93.4% from 213 flights
- March 2026: 75.3% from 235 flights
- April 2026: 77.6% from 230 flights
- May 2026: 66.5% from 228 flights
- June 2026: 68.0% from 201 flights
- July 2026: 76.1% from 209 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 75.9% against 80.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,507 AUS → IAH flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed