Route profile
CLT→IAH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Charlotte to Houston, 912 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 19% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,531 flights. How this is calculated
CLT → IAH arrives on time 74.5% of the time; the return trip, IAH → CLT, arrives on time 77.5% of the time, a 3.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CLT → IAH spends 30.5 minutes on the ground on a 912-mile trip: 19.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLT and 11.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAH.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability here swings unusually widely by season, a wider month-to-month spread than 94% of 3,357 comparable routes.
85.4% on time in a typical February, against 59.7% in July.
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 3,357 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where CLT to IAH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CLT to IAH struggles most at 6 PM: 61.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 6.4 points behind the 68.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7 points.
Friday is the day CLT to IAH slips furthest against routes of similar length, 69.6% on time where they average 76.0%, 6.4 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 6.6 points.
In May, CLT to IAH runs 9.9 points below routes of similar length, 64.5% on time to 74.4%. Against all other routes the gap is 10.8 points.
February is kinder to CLT to IAH than to routes of similar length: 85.4% on time against 81.6%, 3.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 4 points.
CLT to IAH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 61.6% | routes of similar length | 68.0% | −6.4 pts | 714 here, 179,990 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 69.6% | routes of similar length | 76.0% | −6.4 pts | 1,134 here, 416,054 there |
| Month: May | 64.5% | routes of similar length | 74.4% | −9.9 pts | 620 here, 234,027 there |
| Month: February | 85.4% | routes of similar length | 81.6% | +3.8 pts | 575 here, 201,909 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 912 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 CLT → IAH flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLT → IAH cancelled 142 of 7,531 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 53. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 81.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 65 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 142 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.
115 cancellations, 81.0% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
24 cancellations, 16.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
3 cancellations, 2.1% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
142 coded cancellations were recorded on CLT → IAH; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
57 min late
against a median of 4 min early
CLT → IAH has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 4 min early, but the worst tenth are 61 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.
Percentiles over 7,531 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAH after arriving from CLT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 42% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.2% | Some 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 1.89% of the time and diverts 0.28% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,368 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 57 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,531 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLT → IAH flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.4% of the time, against 60.5% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 26.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 87.6% on time from 551 flights
- 7 AM: 86.9% on time from 1,432 flights
- 8 AM: 91.3% on time from 153 flights
- 9 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 79.8% on time from 756 flights
- 12 PM: 78.3% on time from 404 flights
- 1 PM: 84.4% on time from 122 flights
- 2 PM: 77.5% on time from 288 flights
- 3 PM: 66.4% on time from 791 flights
- 4 PM: 73.0% on time from 438 flights
- 5 PM: 64.2% on time from 558 flights
- 6 PM: 61.6% on time from 735 flights
- 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 65.9% on time from 422 flights
- 9 PM: too few flights to score
- 10 PM: 59.7% on time from 517 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why CLT → 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 CLT → IAH. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CLT → IAH, at 44.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 87.4% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 60.5%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 5,083 | 73.7% | 1.75% | -4 min | 10.1% |
| United Airlines | 1,760 | 79.6% | 1.59% | -5 min | 7.3% |
| Frontier Airlines | 426 | 64.4% | 4.46% | 3 min | 11.8% |
American Airlines flew 69.9% of the 7,269 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 4.46% of its flights here against 1.59% for United Airlines.
United Airlines arrived on time 15.2 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
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
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 10.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.8%
- Feb: 85.4%
- Mar: 77.8%
- Apr: 76.4%
- May: 64.5%
- Jun: 64.4%
- Jul: 59.7%
- Aug: 70.8%
- Sep: 83.6%
- Oct: 78.6%
- Nov: 83.7%
- Dec: 78.9%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 25.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 66.9% from 178 flights
- August 2023: 77.7% from 181 flights
- September 2023: 82.1% from 162 flights
- October 2023: 74.2% from 199 flights
- November 2023: 84.5% from 181 flights
- December 2023: 80.5% from 164 flights
- January 2024: 73.3% from 191 flights
- February 2024: 87.6% from 193 flights
- March 2024: 76.7% from 211 flights
- April 2024: 74.6% from 203 flights
- May 2024: 53.4% from 206 flights
- June 2024: 60.4% from 238 flights
- July 2024: 50.4% from 258 flights
- August 2024: 72.1% from 255 flights
- September 2024: 80.2% from 235 flights
- October 2024: 79.4% from 238 flights
- November 2024: 81.8% from 199 flights
- December 2024: 74.1% from 202 flights
- January 2025: 76.8% from 223 flights
- February 2025: 80.2% from 201 flights
- March 2025: 74.1% from 226 flights
- April 2025: 79.7% from 208 flights
- May 2025: 67.3% from 215 flights
- June 2025: 62.7% from 215 flights
- July 2025: 59.3% from 222 flights
- August 2025: 62.2% from 183 flights
- September 2025: 89.6% from 174 flights
- October 2025: 82.2% from 186 flights
- November 2025: 84.9% from 174 flights
- December 2025: 83.2% from 167 flights
- January 2026: 87.2% from 191 flights
- February 2026: 88.6% from 190 flights
- March 2026: 82.6% from 227 flights
- April 2026: 74.9% from 217 flights
- May 2026: 71.8% from 216 flights
- June 2026: 70.7% from 201 flights
- July 2026: 64.8% from 201 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.3% against 73.9% in the 12 months before — improving by 4.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,531 CLT → 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