Route profile
IAH→CMH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Columbus, 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 28% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,800 flights. How this is calculated
IAH → CMH arrives on time 75.2% of the time; the return trip, CMH → IAH, arrives on time 78.0% of the time, a 2.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAH → CMH spends 30.0 minutes on the ground on a 986-mile trip: 22.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAH and 7.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at CMH.
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 97% of 3,357 comparable routes.
85.1% on time in a typical November, against 57.1% in June.
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 IAH to CMH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAH to CMH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 76.3% arrive on time, 8.7 points ahead of the 67.6% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
Friday is the day IAH to CMH slips furthest against routes of similar length, 68.8% on time where they average 75.6%, 6.8 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
In June, IAH to CMH runs 14.4 points below routes of similar length, 57.1% on time to 71.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 15.6 points.
United Airlines’ flights on IAH to CMH arrive on time 75.1% of the time, 5.5 points below the 80.6% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 4.8 points.
IAH to CMH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 76.3% | routes of similar length | 67.6% | +8.7 pts | 620 here, 195,233 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 68.8% | routes of similar length | 75.6% | −6.8 pts | 269 here, 457,389 there |
| Month: June | 57.1% | routes of similar length | 71.5% | −14.4 pts | 147 here, 247,644 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 75.1% | routes of similar length | 80.6% | −5.5 pts | 1,770 here, 474,267 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
58 min late
against a median of 2 min early
IAH → CMH has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 2 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 1,800 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CMH after arriving from IAH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 45% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 24% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.7% | 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 1.17% of the time and diverts 0.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,776 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 58 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,800 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why IAH → CMH 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for IAH → CMH. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IAH → CMH, at 47.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late.
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 | 1,794 | 75.1% | 1.17% | -2 min | 9.7% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA2086 United Airlines | 8:15 PM | 611 | 74.1% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 11.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 83.6%
- Feb: 79.5%
- Mar to May: no data
- Jun: 57.1%
- Jul: 62.4%
- Aug: 76.9%
- Sep: 83.1%
- Oct: 78.6%
- Nov: 85.1%
- Dec: 77.2%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 28.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.4% against 78.1% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,800 IAH → CMH 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