Route profile
BOS→IAH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Boston to Houston, 1,597 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 6,152 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
BOS → IAH arrives on time 78.1% of the time; the return trip, IAH → BOS, arrives on time 73.3% of the time, a 4.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
BOS → IAH spends 30.7 minutes on the ground on a 1,597-mile trip: 18.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BOS and 12.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAH.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where BOS to IAH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BOS to IAH struggles most at 2 PM: 56.7% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 16.5 points behind the 73.2% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 17.9 points.
BOS to IAH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 84.0% arrive on time, 8.8 points ahead of the 75.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.9 points.
March is kinder to BOS to IAH than to routes of similar length: 85.6% on time against 78.4%, 7.2 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
In January, BOS to IAH runs 5.7 points below routes of similar length, 73.2% on time to 78.9%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.9 points.
BOS to IAH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 56.7% | routes of similar length | 73.2% | −16.5 pts | 254 here, 86,480 there |
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 84.0% | routes of similar length | 75.2% | +8.8 pts | 1,105 here, 92,672 there |
| Month: March | 85.6% | routes of similar length | 78.4% | +7.2 pts | 439 here, 130,948 there |
| Month: January | 73.2% | routes of similar length | 78.9% | −5.7 pts | 339 here, 113,581 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 1,597 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 BOS → IAH flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
BOS → IAH cancelled 95 of 6,152 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 65. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 52.6% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 123 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 95 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.
50 cancellations, 52.6% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
28 cancellations, 29.5% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
17 cancellations, 17.9% 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.
95 coded cancellations were recorded on BOS → IAH; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
46 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 6,152 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAH after arriving from BOS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.4% | 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 1.54% of the time and diverts 0.52% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,025 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 46 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,152 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BOS → IAH flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.5% of the time, against 70.1% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 19.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.7% on time from 309 flights
- 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 90.0% on time from 1,206 flights
- 8 AM: 83.5% on time from 338 flights
- 9 AM: 74.7% on time from 427 flights
- 10 AM: 77.8% on time from 165 flights
- 11 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 84.0% on time from 1,116 flights
- 2 PM: 56.7% on time from 260 flights
- 3 PM: 71.5% on time from 951 flights
- 4 PM: 76.5% on time from 326 flights
- 5 PM: 65.3% on time from 703 flights
- 6 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why BOS → IAH runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BOS → IAH. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on BOS → IAH, at 35.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.5% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 70.1%.
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 | 4,590 | 81.9% | 1.37% | -10 min | 6.1% |
| JetBlue | 1,383 | 68.7% | 1.45% | -3 min | 11.1% |
United Airlines flew 76.8% of the 5,973 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 13.2 percentage points more often than JetBlue on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
UA226 (7:15 AM) arrived on time 91.8% of the time, 24.2 points more often than B62033 (8:00 AM) at 67.6%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 8.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 73.2%
- Feb: 85.6%
- Mar: 85.6%
- Apr: 81.3%
- May: 72.5%
- Jun: 75.3%
- Jul: 67.4%
- Aug: 79.3%
- Sep: 77.4%
- Oct: 84.5%
- Nov: 85.5%
- Dec: 78.6%
July is historically the weakest month and March the strongest, a spread of 18.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 60.9% from 183 flights
- August 2023: 77.0% from 186 flights
- September 2023: 72.2% from 163 flights
- October 2023: 79.7% from 179 flights
- November 2023: 86.1% from 144 flights
- December 2023: 82.5% from 143 flights
- January 2024: 72.7% from 130 flights
- February 2024: 91.3% from 127 flights
- March 2024: 85.9% from 142 flights
- April 2024: 76.5% from 167 flights
- May 2024: 63.0% from 192 flights
- June 2024: 75.8% from 209 flights
- July 2024: 57.7% from 211 flights
- August 2024: 78.2% from 199 flights
- September 2024: 82.6% from 172 flights
- October 2024: 91.4% from 163 flights
- November 2024: 87.1% from 139 flights
- December 2024: 75.6% from 132 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (113)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- March 2025: 82.0% from 150 flights
- April 2025: 76.5% from 150 flights
- May 2025: 81.1% from 207 flights
- June 2025: 71.1% from 196 flights
- July 2025: 78.8% from 216 flights
- August 2025: 82.4% from 197 flights
- September 2025: 76.9% from 158 flights
- October 2025: 83.2% from 190 flights
- November 2025: 84.0% from 189 flights
- December 2025: 77.7% from 175 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (116)
- February 2026: 87.4% from 122 flights
- March 2026: 89.1% from 148 flights
- April 2026: 91.4% from 151 flights
- May 2026: 72.5% from 178 flights
- June 2026: 79.1% from 187 flights
- July 2026: 70.5% from 210 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.0% against 79.0% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,152 BOS → 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