Route profile
IAH→TPA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Tampa, 787 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 5,198 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAH → TPA arrives on time 79.0% of the time; the return trip, TPA → IAH, arrives on time 82.6% of the time, a 3.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAH → TPA spends 26.2 minutes on the ground on a 787-mile trip: 20.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAH and 6.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at TPA.
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 93% of 3,357 comparable routes.
89.9% on time in a typical February, against 64.9% 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 TPA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAH to TPA struggles most at 1 PM: 61.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 16.5 points behind the 77.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.7 points.
IAH to TPA is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 80.5% arrive on time, 6.1 points ahead of the 74.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 5.9 points.
February is kinder to IAH to TPA than to routes of similar length: 89.9% on time against 82.4%, 7.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.5 points.
IAH to TPA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 61.4% | routes of similar length | 77.9% | −16.5 pts | 277 here, 129,246 there |
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 80.5% | routes of similar length | 74.4% | +6.1 pts | 681 here, 127,730 there |
| Month: February | 89.9% | routes of similar length | 82.4% | +7.5 pts | 386 here, 152,907 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 787 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 → TPA flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
IAH → TPA cancelled 89 of 5,198 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 58. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 42.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 137 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 89 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
38 cancellations, 42.7% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
33 cancellations, 37.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
18 cancellations, 20.2% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
89 coded cancellations were recorded on IAH → TPA; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
50 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 5,198 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at TPA after arriving from IAH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.3% | 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 1.71% of the time and diverts 0.19% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,099 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 50 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,198 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAH → TPA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.9% of the time, against 72.8% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 17.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 90.4% on time from 1,175 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 84.0% on time from 232 flights
- 10 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 78.1% on time from 970 flights
- 1 PM: 61.4% on time from 284 flights
- 2 PM: 80.5% on time from 692 flights
- 3 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 73.5% on time from 1,205 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IAH → TPA runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for IAH → TPA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IAH → TPA, at 39.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.9% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 72.8%.
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 | 4,310 | 79.8% | 1.53% | -9 min | 8.2% |
| Spirit Airlines | 678 | 77.5% | 2.51% | -7 min | 8.3% |
| Frontier Airlines | 210 | 66.2% | 2.86% | -2 min | 16.7% |
United Airlines flew 82.9% of the 5,198 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.86% of its flights here against 1.53% for United Airlines.
United Airlines arrived on time 13.6 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.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA1501 United Airlines | 12:35 PM | 618 | 78.2% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 85.3%
- Feb: 89.9%
- Mar: 76.0%
- Apr: 79.2%
- May: 71.6%
- Jun: 67.7%
- Jul: 64.9%
- Aug: 76.4%
- Sep: 84.7%
- Oct: 86.6%
- Nov: 88.0%
- Dec: 83.5%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 25.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (90)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (95)
- November 2023: 87.3% from 134 flights
- December 2023: 84.4% from 154 flights
- January 2024: 82.4% from 149 flights
- February 2024: 93.0% from 142 flights
- March 2024: 70.1% from 171 flights
- April 2024: 74.7% from 176 flights
- May 2024: 62.2% from 164 flights
- June 2024: 67.6% from 149 flights
- July 2024: 47.9% from 153 flights
- August 2024: 70.7% from 154 flights
- September 2024: 83.9% from 149 flights
- October 2024: 88.6% from 155 flights
- November 2024: 90.4% from 146 flights
- December 2024: 82.8% from 147 flights
- January 2025: 84.4% from 146 flights
- February 2025: 82.9% from 129 flights
- March 2025: 76.6% from 169 flights
- April 2025: 82.4% from 142 flights
- May 2025: 76.7% from 172 flights
- June 2025: 65.7% from 174 flights
- July 2025: 69.4% from 173 flights
- August 2025: 77.2% from 147 flights
- September 2025: 88.8% from 135 flights
- October 2025: 82.1% from 125 flights
- November 2025: 86.3% from 150 flights
- December 2025: 83.3% from 150 flights
- January 2026: 89.0% from 145 flights
- February 2026: too few flights to score (115)
- March 2026: 82.4% from 138 flights
- April 2026: 81.5% from 135 flights
- May 2026: 76.4% from 123 flights
- June 2026: too few flights to score (107)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (109)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.2% against 79.1% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.1 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,198 IAH → TPA 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