Route profile
IAH→RDU
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Raleigh–Durham, 1,042 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 2,708 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAH → RDU arrives on time 78.4% of the time; the return trip, RDU → IAH, arrives on time 81.0% of the time, a 2.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAH → RDU spends 27.1 minutes on the ground on a 1,042-mile trip: 21.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAH and 5.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at RDU.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where IAH to RDU differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAH to RDU is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 12 PM: 87.6% arrive on time, 9.5 points ahead of the 78.1% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.2 points.
February is kinder to IAH to RDU than to routes of similar length: 88.5% on time against 80.2%, 8.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
IAH to RDU against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 87.6% | routes of similar length | 78.1% | +9.5 pts | 865 here, 168,436 there |
| Month: February | 88.5% | routes of similar length | 80.2% | +8.3 pts | 183 here, 215,484 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 1,042 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
48 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 2,708 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at RDU after arriving from IAH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.9% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.5% | 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 1.18% of the time and diverts 0.18% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,671 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 48 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,708 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAH → RDU flights departing 12–3 PM arrived on time 84.6% of the time, against 66.7% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 17.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 80.1% on time from 184 flights
- 10 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 87.6% on time from 874 flights
- 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 66.4% on time from 129 flights
- 3 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 73.7% on time from 1,103 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why IAH → RDU 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 → RDU. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IAH → RDU, at 50.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 12–3 PM departures arrived on time 84.6% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 66.7%.
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 | 2,176 | 80.1% | 0.92% | -5 min | 6.6% |
| Frontier Airlines | 473 | 70.2% | 2.54% | -2 min | 14.2% |
United Airlines flew 82.1% of the 2,649 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.54% of its flights here against 0.92% for United Airlines.
United Airlines arrived on time 9.9 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 7.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 83.6%
- Feb: 88.5%
- Mar: 78.9%
- Apr: 78.6%
- May: 70.2%
- Jun: 66.7%
- Jul: 64.8%
- Aug: 75.3%
- Sep: 88.1%
- Oct: 87.5%
- Nov: 83.8%
- Dec: 81.0%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 23.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.8% against 77.0% in the 12 months before — improving by 5.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,708 IAH → RDU 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