Route profile
CMH→IAH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Columbus to Houston, 986 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 40% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,801 flights. How this is calculated
CMH → IAH arrives on time 78.0% of the time; the return trip, IAH → CMH, arrives on time 75.2% of the time, a 2.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CMH → IAH spends 27.4 minutes on the ground on a 986-mile trip: 15.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CMH and 11.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAH.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 92% of 5,368 comparable routes.
78.3% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 77.8% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
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 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where CMH to IAH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CMH to IAH struggles most at 6 AM: 83.2% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 7.4 points behind the 90.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.6 points.
CMH to IAH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 AM: 94.1% arrive on time, 5.9 points ahead of the 88.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
August is kinder to CMH to IAH than to routes of similar length: 83.8% on time against 74.3%, 9.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.3 points.
United Airlines’ flights on CMH to IAH arrive on time 78.0% of the time, 2.6 points below the 80.6% it manages on its routes of similar length.
CMH to IAH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 AM departures | 83.2% | routes of similar length | 90.6% | −7.4 pts | 905 here, 226,136 there |
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 94.1% | routes of similar length | 88.2% | +5.9 pts | 186 here, 250,013 there |
| Month: August | 83.8% | routes of similar length | 74.3% | +9.5 pts | 173 here, 245,475 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 78.0% | routes of similar length | 80.6% | −2.6 pts | 1,765 here, 474,272 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 986 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
44 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 1,801 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAH after arriving from CMH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.9% | 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 1.55% of the time and diverts 0.11% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,771 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 44 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,801 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why CMH → IAH runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for CMH → IAH. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 | 1,795 | 78.0% | 1.56% | -5 min | 7.5% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA2205 United Airlines | 6:30 AM | 1,072 | 84.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 9.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 75.2%
- Feb: 83.5%
- Mar to May: no data
- Jun: 66.9%
- Jul: 66.0%
- Aug: 83.8%
- Sep: 83.7%
- Oct: 84.6%
- Nov: 77.7%
- Dec: 73.5%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 18.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.3% against 77.8% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,801 CMH → 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