Route profile
IAH→MSP
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Minneapolis, 1,034 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 38% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,756 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAH → MSP arrives on time 78.7% of the time; the return trip, MSP → IAH, arrives on time 81.3% of the time, a 2.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAH → MSP spends 24.4 minutes on the ground on a 1,034-mile trip: 17.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAH and 6.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at MSP.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where IAH to MSP differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAH to MSP is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 80.7% arrive on time, 13.2 points ahead of the 67.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10 points.
IAH to MSP holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 81.1% on time to their 77.0%, a 4.1 points lead.
February is kinder to IAH to MSP than to routes of similar length: 87.5% on time against 80.3%, 7.2 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
In May, IAH to MSP runs 6 points below routes of similar length, 68.2% on time to 74.2%. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
United Airlines’ flights on IAH to MSP arrive on time 74.8% of the time, 5.8 points below the 80.6% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 5.1 points.
IAH to MSP against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 80.7% | routes of similar length | 67.5% | +13.2 pts | 197 here, 149,421 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 81.1% | routes of similar length | 77.0% | +4.1 pts | 656 here, 377,765 there |
| Month: February | 87.5% | routes of similar length | 80.3% | +7.2 pts | 407 here, 211,386 there |
| Month: May | 68.2% | routes of similar length | 74.2% | −6.0 pts | 507 here, 234,683 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 74.8% | routes of similar length | 80.6% | −5.8 pts | 1,585 here, 389,354 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 1,034 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.
Why IAH → MSP flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
IAH → MSP cancelled 60 of 5,756 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 96. The reason filed most often was the airline, 50.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 192 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 60 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
30 cancellations, 50.0% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
28 cancellations, 46.7% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
2 cancellations, 3.3% of the total.
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. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
60 coded cancellations were recorded on IAH → MSP; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
53 min late
against a median of 7 min early
IAH → MSP has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 7 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 5,756 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MSP after arriving from IAH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 9.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.2% | 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 1.04% of the time and diverts 0.07% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,692 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 5,756 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAH → MSP flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.7% of the time, against 71.4% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 17.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 87.9% on time from 1,127 flights
- 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 93.0% on time from 187 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 79.5% on time from 769 flights
- 11 AM: 80.0% on time from 164 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 86.4% on time from 142 flights
- 2 PM: 74.8% on time from 913 flights
- 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 80.7% on time from 198 flights
- 5 PM: 72.2% on time from 393 flights
- 6 PM: 73.1% on time from 380 flights
- 7 PM: 71.3% on time from 342 flights
- 8 PM: 70.5% on time from 816 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IAH → MSP runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for IAH → MSP. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 4,025 | 80.2% | 0.99% | -9 min | 8.9% |
| United Airlines | 1,604 | 74.8% | 1.18% | -4 min | 9.4% |
Delta Air Lines flew 71.5% of the 5,629 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 5.4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL1050 Delta Air Lines | 6:40 AM | 1,065 | 88.2% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.6%
- Feb: 87.5%
- Mar: 81.6%
- Apr: 79.8%
- May: 68.2%
- Jun: 66.0%
- Jul: 73.2%
- Aug: 77.7%
- Sep: 86.0%
- Oct: 85.5%
- Nov: 84.1%
- Dec: 78.0%
June is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 21.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 74.5% from 167 flights
- August 2023: 78.4% from 174 flights
- September 2023: 80.2% from 168 flights
- October 2023: 86.7% from 166 flights
- November 2023: 90.1% from 162 flights
- December 2023: 89.0% from 146 flights
- January 2024: 78.4% from 153 flights
- February 2024: 89.4% from 151 flights
- March 2024: 87.1% from 133 flights
- April 2024: 73.7% from 172 flights
- May 2024: 60.7% from 166 flights
- June 2024: 62.3% from 138 flights
- July 2024: 64.2% from 147 flights
- August 2024: 76.7% from 147 flights
- September 2024: 91.1% from 146 flights
- October 2024: 89.0% from 172 flights
- November 2024: 91.5% from 153 flights
- December 2024: 76.7% from 151 flights
- January 2025: 83.3% from 145 flights
- February 2025: 87.7% from 122 flights
- March 2025: 80.9% from 136 flights
- April 2025: 80.0% from 146 flights
- May 2025: 60.4% from 165 flights
- June 2025: 60.7% from 187 flights
- July 2025: 70.6% from 143 flights
- August 2025: 77.9% from 141 flights
- September 2025: 87.5% from 137 flights
- October 2025: 80.1% from 151 flights
- November 2025: 70.5% from 157 flights
- December 2025: 68.1% from 145 flights
- January 2026: 83.2% from 138 flights
- February 2026: 85.1% from 135 flights
- March 2026: 77.7% from 166 flights
- April 2026: 86.1% from 165 flights
- May 2026: 82.2% from 180 flights
- June 2026: 74.4% from 177 flights
- July 2026: 79.7% from 208 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.3% against 78.5% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,756 IAH → MSP 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