Route profile
IAH→JAX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Jacksonville, 817 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 35% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,270 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAH → JAX arrives on time 74.5% of the time; the return trip, JAX → IAH, arrives on time 87.2% of the time, a 12.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAH → JAX spends 28.5 minutes on the ground on an 817-mile trip: 21.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAH and 7.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at JAX.
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 100% of 3,357 comparable routes.
86.7% on time in a typical November, against 54.6% 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 IAH to JAX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAH to JAX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 77.8% arrive on time, 10.2 points ahead of the 67.6% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.2 points.
IAH to JAX struggles most at 12 PM: 72.8% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 7.2 points behind the 80.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.6 points.
Wednesday is the day IAH to JAX slips furthest against routes of similar length, 73.7% on time where they average 80.4%, 6.7 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
In July, IAH to JAX runs 13.8 points below routes of similar length, 54.6% on time to 68.4%. Against all other routes the gap is 15.1 points.
United Airlines’ flights on IAH to JAX arrive on time 74.8% of the time, 4.6 points below the 79.4% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 5.1 points.
IAH to JAX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 77.8% | routes of similar length | 67.6% | +10.2 pts | 500 here, 150,856 there |
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 72.8% | routes of similar length | 80.0% | −7.2 pts | 448 here, 133,796 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 73.7% | routes of similar length | 80.4% | −6.7 pts | 327 here, 316,356 there |
| Month: July | 54.6% | routes of similar length | 68.4% | −13.8 pts | 174 here, 253,494 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 74.8% | routes of similar length | 79.4% | −4.6 pts | 2,138 here, 399,430 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 817 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
54 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 2,270 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at JAX after arriving from IAH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.7% | 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 0.97% of the time and diverts 0.22% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,243 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 54 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,270 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAH → JAX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 85.9% of the time, against 73.1% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 12.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 80.5% on time from 185 flights
- 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 72.8% on time from 458 flights
- 1 PM: 77.7% on time from 168 flights
- 2 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 77.8% on time from 506 flights
- 7 PM: 74.1% on time from 241 flights
- 8 PM: 65.9% on time from 363 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IAH → JAX 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 → JAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IAH → JAX, at 44.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 85.9% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 73.1%.
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 | 2,162 | 74.8% | 0.88% | -5 min | 8.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 77.8%
- Feb: 79.8%
- Mar: 69.1%
- Apr: 76.8%
- May: 64.3%
- Jun: 65.3%
- Jul: 54.6%
- Aug: 77.5%
- Sep: 82.4%
- Oct: 84.2%
- Nov: 86.7%
- Dec: 73.9%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 32.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.8% against 73.4% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,270 IAH → JAX 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