Route profile
IAH→MEM
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Memphis, 468 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 32% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,322 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAH → MEM arrives on time 75.7% of the time; the return trip, MEM → IAH, arrives on time 79.7% of the time, a 4.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAH → MEM spends 28.8 minutes on the ground on a 468-mile trip: 22.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAH and 6.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at MEM.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Which day you fly matters unusually much here, a wider weekday spread than 97% of 4,467 comparable routes.
86.2% on time on a typical Wednesday, against 69.7% on a Friday.
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where IAH to MEM differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAH to MEM is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 81.3% arrive on time, 13.3 points ahead of the 68.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.5 points.
IAH to MEM struggles most at 7 AM: 84.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 3.4 points behind the 88.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
Saturday is the day IAH to MEM slips furthest against routes of similar length, 73.1% on time where they average 80.1%, 7 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 6 points.
In March, IAH to MEM runs 7.9 points below routes of similar length, 70.8% on time to 78.7%. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
United Airlines’ flights on IAH to MEM arrive on time 69.8% of the time, 8.3 points below the 78.1% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
IAH to MEM against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 81.3% | routes of similar length | 68.0% | +13.3 pts | 139 here, 93,915 there |
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 84.9% | routes of similar length | 88.3% | −3.4 pts | 410 here, 106,889 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 73.1% | routes of similar length | 80.1% | −7.0 pts | 309 here, 189,407 there |
| Month: March | 70.8% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | −7.9 pts | 195 here, 128,434 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 69.8% | routes of similar length | 78.1% | −8.3 pts | 1,109 here, 127,160 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 468 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
53 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 2,322 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MEM after arriving from IAH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 42% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 23% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.9% | 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 1.42% of the time and diverts 0.09% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,287 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 53 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,322 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAH → MEM flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 85.3% of the time, against 70.0% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 15.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 84.9% on time from 414 flights
- 8 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 84.8% on time from 400 flights
- 1 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 70.0% on time from 177 flights
- 5 PM to 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 81.3% on time from 140 flights
- 8 PM: 69.3% on time from 923 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IAH → MEM 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 → MEM. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IAH → MEM, at 46.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 85.3% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 70.0%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,195 | 81.2% | 1.34% | -4 min | 8.0% |
| United Airlines | 1,127 | 69.8% | 1.51% | -1 min | 9.5% |
SkyWest Airlines flew 51.5% of the 2,322 flights listed.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 11.4 percentage points more often than United 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA1794 United Airlines | 8:10 PM | 1,038 | 68.9% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 16.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.3%
- Feb: 80.9%
- Mar: 70.8%
- Apr: 74.4%
- May: 73.0%
- Jun: 68.1%
- Jul: 69.3%
- Aug: 74.7%
- Sep: 84.7%
- Oct: 80.2%
- Nov: 81.9%
- Dec: 75.2%
June is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 16.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.7% against 72.4% in the 12 months before — improving by 7.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,322 IAH → MEM 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