Route profile
IAH→IND
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Indianapolis, 844 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 2,395 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAH → IND arrives on time 78.7% of the time; the return trip, IND → IAH, arrives on time 81.7% of the time, a 3.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAH → IND spends 27.7 minutes on the ground on an 844-mile trip: 21.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAH and 6.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at IND.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where IAH to IND differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAH to IND is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 87.5% arrive on time, 20.2 points ahead of the 67.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 18.9 points.
January is kinder to IAH to IND than to routes of similar length: 88.2% on time against 78.7%, 9.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.1 points.
In September, IAH to IND runs 5.3 points below routes of similar length, 76.9% on time to 82.2%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.5 points.
IAH to IND against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 87.5% | routes of similar length | 67.3% | +20.2 pts | 184 here, 165,509 there |
| Month: January | 88.2% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | +9.5 pts | 144 here, 190,063 there |
| Month: September | 76.9% | routes of similar length | 82.2% | −5.3 pts | 225 here, 201,968 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 844 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
45 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 2,395 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IND after arriving from IAH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 39% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.9% | 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 1.54% of the time and diverts 0.13% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,355 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 45 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,395 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAH → IND flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.0% of the time, against 71.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 15.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 87.0% on time from 252 flights
- 8 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 84.3% on time from 925 flights
- 1 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 87.5% on time from 187 flights
- 7 PM: 64.7% on time from 340 flights
- 8 PM: 70.9% on time from 501 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IAH → IND 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 → IND. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IAH → IND, at 44.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 87.0% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 71.9%.
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 | 2,274 | 78.6% | 1.32% | -4 min | 7.6% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA1687 United Airlines | 12:25 PM | 842 | 83.1% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 6.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 88.2%
- Feb: 84.4%
- Mar: 81.5%
- Apr: 85.5%
- May: 71.0%
- Jun: 69.6%
- Jul: 67.7%
- Aug: 78.5%
- Sep: 76.9%
- Oct: 81.0%
- Nov: 86.0%
- Dec: 86.5%
July is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 20.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.2% against 81.2% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,395 IAH → IND 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