Route profile
IAH→CLT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Charlotte, 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 20% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,528 flights. How this is calculated
IAH → CLT arrives on time 77.5% of the time; the return trip, CLT → IAH, arrives on time 74.5% of the time, a 3.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAH → CLT spends 32.7 minutes on the ground on a 912-mile trip: 19.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAH and 13.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLT.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where IAH to CLT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAH to CLT struggles most at 1 PM: 64.2% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 12.6 points behind the 76.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.9 points.
IAH to CLT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 11 AM: 89.7% arrive on time, 8.7 points ahead of the 81.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.7 points.
January is kinder to IAH to CLT than to routes of similar length: 84.4% on time against 78.4%, 6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
United Airlines’ flights on IAH to CLT arrive on time 74.2% of the time, 6.5 points below the 80.7% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 5.7 points.
American Airlines does better on IAH to CLT than on its routes of similar length: 79.8% on time here, 74.0% there, 5.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.7 points.
IAH to CLT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 64.2% | routes of similar length | 76.8% | −12.6 pts | 394 here, 165,025 there |
| Hour: 11 AM departures | 89.7% | routes of similar length | 81.0% | +8.7 pts | 146 here, 175,017 there |
| Month: January | 84.4% | routes of similar length | 78.4% | +6.0 pts | 563 here, 209,624 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 74.2% | routes of similar length | 80.7% | −6.5 pts | 1,732 here, 467,970 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 79.8% | routes of similar length | 74.0% | +5.8 pts | 4,975 here, 474,456 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 IAH → CLT flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
IAH → CLT cancelled 154 of 7,528 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 49. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 76.6% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 64 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 154 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.
118 cancellations, 76.6% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
31 cancellations, 20.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
5 cancellations, 3.2% 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.
154 coded cancellations were recorded on IAH → CLT; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
55 min late
against a median of 5 min early
IAH → CLT has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 5 min early, but the worst tenth are 60 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 7,528 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLT after arriving from IAH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.4% | 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 2.05% of the time and diverts 0.20% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,359 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 55 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,528 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAH → CLT flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 85.9% of the time, against 65.6% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 20.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 90.8% on time from 131 flights
- 6 AM: 87.8% on time from 924 flights
- 7 AM: 85.9% on time from 466 flights
- 8 AM: 80.8% on time from 469 flights
- 9 AM: 86.2% on time from 702 flights
- 10 AM: 83.9% on time from 376 flights
- 11 AM: 89.7% on time from 151 flights
- 12 PM: 81.4% on time from 837 flights
- 1 PM: 64.2% on time from 402 flights
- 2 PM: 80.8% on time from 474 flights
- 3 PM: 70.7% on time from 299 flights
- 4 PM: 63.8% on time from 169 flights
- 5 PM: 63.2% on time from 553 flights
- 6 PM: 68.9% on time from 1,506 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why IAH → CLT 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 IAH → CLT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IAH → CLT, at 47.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 85.9% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 65.6%.
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 | 5,081 | 79.8% | 1.95% | -7 min | 8.9% |
| United Airlines | 1,761 | 74.2% | 1.25% | -1 min | 9.6% |
| Frontier Airlines | 425 | 65.3% | 5.88% | 1 min | 13.0% |
American Airlines flew 69.9% of the 7,267 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 5.88% of its flights here against 1.25% for United Airlines.
American Airlines arrived on time 14.5 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.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA2011 American Airlines | 6:34 AM | 1,075 | 87.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 8.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.4%
- Feb: 86.1%
- Mar: 76.3%
- Apr: 76.7%
- May: 70.0%
- Jun: 67.8%
- Jul: 64.6%
- Aug: 73.8%
- Sep: 85.2%
- Oct: 84.1%
- Nov: 85.5%
- Dec: 83.1%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 21.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 71.3% from 179 flights
- August 2023: 77.8% from 181 flights
- September 2023: 84.0% from 162 flights
- October 2023: 83.4% from 200 flights
- November 2023: 88.8% from 180 flights
- December 2023: 81.2% from 165 flights
- January 2024: 79.1% from 190 flights
- February 2024: 83.9% from 193 flights
- March 2024: 74.9% from 211 flights
- April 2024: 73.8% from 203 flights
- May 2024: 54.9% from 206 flights
- June 2024: 62.9% from 237 flights
- July 2024: 48.7% from 257 flights
- August 2024: 73.0% from 255 flights
- September 2024: 84.1% from 235 flights
- October 2024: 86.1% from 238 flights
- November 2024: 84.3% from 199 flights
- December 2024: 83.0% from 201 flights
- January 2025: 83.6% from 223 flights
- February 2025: 84.4% from 201 flights
- March 2025: 78.4% from 226 flights
- April 2025: 80.2% from 208 flights
- May 2025: 75.1% from 215 flights
- June 2025: 66.7% from 215 flights
- July 2025: 64.2% from 222 flights
- August 2025: 70.8% from 182 flights
- September 2025: 87.9% from 175 flights
- October 2025: 82.2% from 186 flights
- November 2025: 83.2% from 174 flights
- December 2025: 85.1% from 168 flights
- January 2026: 91.1% from 190 flights
- February 2026: 89.9% from 192 flights
- March 2026: 75.6% from 227 flights
- April 2026: 76.2% from 217 flights
- May 2026: 78.6% from 215 flights
- June 2026: 74.7% from 200 flights
- July 2026: 77.4% from 200 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.8% against 78.5% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,528 IAH → CLT 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