IAH → LAX Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · IAHNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Houston airport profile →

Destination · LAXNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Los Angeles airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

74/ 100Good

Better than 73% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 16,491 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

82.8%

13,495 of 16,308

Cancellation rate

1.01%

166 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-8 min

Average 2.5 min

Severe delays

5.9%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

67 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

16,491

5 carriers

IAH → LAX arrives on time 82.8% of the time; the return trip, LAX → IAH, arrives on time 85.3% of the time, a 2.5-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

IAH → LAX spends 29.0 minutes on the ground on a 1,379-mile trip: 19.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAH and 10.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAX.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

Why IAH → LAX flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

IAH → LAX cancelled 166 of 16,491 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 99. The reason filed most often was the airline, 52.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 190 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Airline52.4%

Weather41.0%

Air traffic6.6%

Security0.0%

Of 166 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

The airline1 in 190

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

87 cancellations, 52.4% of the total.

Extreme weather1 in 243

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

68 cancellations, 41.0% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 1,499

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

11 cancellations, 6.6% of the total.

Security—

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.

166 coded cancellations were recorded on IAH → LAX; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

34 min late

against a median of 8 min early

Arrived an hour or more late5.9%

Typical delay when late67 min

Cancelled1.01%

Landed somewhere else0.10%

Percentiles over 16,491 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at LAX after arriving from IAH.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, IAH → LAX arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	32%	Likely to miss
45 min	17%	High risk
60 min	11%	Some risk
90 min	5.8%	Some risk
120 min	3.4%	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 1.01% of the time and diverts 0.10% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 16,308 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 34 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 16,491 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

IAH → LAX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.1% of the time, against 74.4% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 17.7 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (IAH).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 6.7 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 1.9 points.

On-time arrival rate for IAH to LAX by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM
9 PM–10 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

65–69
70–74
75–79
80–84
85–89
90–94
95–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures before 6 AM and after 10 PM (1,345 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for IAH to LAX. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	90.9% on time247 flights	93.2% on time225 flights	91.6% on time239 flights	93.5% on time247 flights	93.8% on time243 flights	90.4% on time251 flights	92.3% on time252 flights
7 AM–8 AM	90.4% on time219 flights	89.5% on time212 flights	95.8% on time216 flights	88.9% on time236 flights	88.8% on time217 flights	89.1% on time211 flights	88.9% on time226 flights
8 AM–9 AM	9 flights, too few to score	13 flights, too few to score	13 flights, too few to score	11 flights, too few to score	14 flights, too few to score	13 flights, too few to score	9 flights, too few to score
9 AM–10 AM	114 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score	116 flights, too few to score	110 flights, too few to score	112 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	68 flights, too few to score	70 flights, too few to score	72 flights, too few to score	68 flights, too few to score	66 flights, too few to score	68 flights, too few to score	69 flights, too few to score
11 AM–12 PM	47 flights, too few to score	34 flights, too few to score	43 flights, too few to score	55 flights, too few to score	47 flights, too few to score	65 flights, too few to score	56 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	83.0% on time185 flights	85.9% on time181 flights	88.1% on time188 flights	84.9% on time183 flights	86.3% on time185 flights	82.0% on time189 flights	85.3% on time185 flights
1 PM–2 PM	45 flights, too few to score	3 flights, too few to score	39 flights, too few to score	33 flights, too few to score	45 flights, too few to score	65 flights, too few to score	43 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	83.5% on time161 flights	85.4% on time180 flights	85.1% on time169 flights	80.0% on time164 flights	85.4% on time159 flights	82.8% on time152 flights	80.7% on time168 flights
3 PM–4 PM	72 flights, too few to score	66 flights, too few to score	59 flights, too few to score	74 flights, too few to score	65 flights, too few to score	31 flights, too few to score	67 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	82.5% on time321 flights	83.4% on time323 flights	81.4% on time324 flights	82.3% on time313 flights	80.4% on time321 flights	72.1% on time210 flights	79.1% on time312 flights
5 PM–6 PM	24 flights, too few to score	19 flights, too few to score	24 flights, too few to score	34 flights, too few to score	29 flights, too few to score	29 flights, too few to score	33 flights, too few to score
6 PM–7 PM	79.2% on time171 flights	80.7% on time183 flights	77.8% on time195 flights	76.9% on time171 flights	77.1% on time171 flights	73.6% on time150 flights	71.7% on time173 flights
7 PM–8 PM	74.4% on time230 flights	74.7% on time239 flights	83.9% on time230 flights	74.2% on time225 flights	74.3% on time241 flights	73.5% on time233 flights	65.0% on time228 flights
8 PM–9 PM	66.1% on time173 flights	75.9% on time138 flights	77.3% on time133 flights	71.2% on time149 flights	66.7% on time157 flights	105 flights, too few to score	66.9% on time138 flights
9 PM–10 PM	86.9% on time133 flights	112 flights, too few to score	82.0% on time133 flights	80.9% on time132 flights	80.1% on time138 flights	108 flights, too few to score	70.8% on time140 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM92.1%

9 AM–12 PM82.7%

12–3 PM83.7%

3–6 PM80.9%

6–9 PM74.4%

9 PM–5 AM80.4%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why IAH → LAX runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

The airline40.3%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Late-arriving aircraft34.8%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Air traffic control16.4%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather8.4%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for IAH → LAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

The harder-hit end is the one the flight leaves from, where a cancellation keeps it from departing at all. Bad weather cancels 3.4 times the normal rate at IAH against 1.3 times at LAX. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: IAH 4.1% against 1.2%, LAX 1.0% against 0.8%. Flights that did leave IAH in bad weather arrived on time 63.8% of the time, against 78.6% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from IAH and LAX in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	IAH	LAX
Cancelled in bad weather	4.1%	1.0%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.2%	0.8%
Arrived on time, bad weather	63.8%	78.9%
Arrived on time, normal hours	78.6%	81.4%
Departures in bad weather	28,922	60,639

Of the carriers on this route, United Airlines (3.4% cancelled against 5.2% for the other carriers at IAH) cancelled the fewest departures from IAH in bad weather and SkyWest Airlines (8.0% cancelled against 4.0% for the other carriers at IAH) the most.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at IAH

All departures from IAH

Cancellation rates in bad weather at IAH for the airlines that fly IAH to LAX, against the other carriers at IAH in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
United Airlines	17,078	3.4%below the others	5.2%
Delta Air Lines	2,231	2.9%below the others	4.3%
Spirit Airlines	2,056	4.3%about level	4.4%
Frontier Airlines	915	5.0%above the others	3.8%
SkyWest Airlines	3,151	8.0%above the others	4.0%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from IAH and LAX, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from IAH on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: IAH (airlines), LAX, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
United Airlines	10,501	82.8%	1.00%	-7 min	5.8%
Spirit Airlines	2,248	81.3%	1.02%	-10 min	6.7%
Delta Air Lines	2,032	87.5%	1.13%	-10 min	5.1%
SkyWest Airlines	1,150	82.6%	0.61%	-12 min	4.7%
Frontier Airlines	559	70.8%	1.43%	-3 min	9.4%

United Airlines flew 63.7% of the 16,490 flights listed.

Delta Air Lines arrived on time 16.7 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.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
UA1743 United Airlines	4:20 PM	1,004	79.4%
DL1216 Delta Air Lines	6:00 AM	963	91.9%
UA1945 United Airlines	2:20 PM	847	82.8%
UA2095 United Airlines	7:50 PM	684	75.1%

DL1216 (6:00 AM) arrived on time 91.9% of the time, 16.8 points more often than UA2095 (7:50 PM) at 75.1%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon82.4%

Tue84.9%

Wed86.1%

Thu82.2%

Fri82.3%

Sat81.4%

Sun80.1%

Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.0 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

June is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 14.5 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 83.9% against 84.6% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 16,491 IAH → LAX 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

IAH airport LAX airport Return direction LAX → IAH

IAH→LAX

Right now

Route reliability

Why IAH → LAX flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why IAH → LAX runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at IAH

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology