Route profile
IND→IAH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Indianapolis to Houston, 844 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 59% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,396 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IND → IAH arrives on time 81.7% of the time; the return trip, IAH → IND, arrives on time 78.7% of the time, a 3.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IND → IAH spends 27.8 minutes on the ground on an 844-mile trip: 15.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IND and 12.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAH.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where IND to IAH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IND to IAH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 77.0% arrive on time, 8.3 points ahead of the 68.7% those routes manage at that hour.
IND to IAH holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 81.7% on time to their 76.3%, a 5.4 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.9 points.
August is kinder to IND to IAH than to routes of similar length: 87.3% on time against 75.2%, 12.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.8 points.
United Airlines does better on IND to IAH than on its routes of similar length: 81.9% on time here, 79.6% there, 2.3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 2 points.
IND to IAH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 77.0% | routes of similar length | 68.7% | +8.3 pts | 204 here, 143,144 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 81.7% | routes of similar length | 76.3% | +5.4 pts | 345 here, 379,934 there |
| Month: August | 87.3% | routes of similar length | 75.2% | +12.1 pts | 221 here, 209,793 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 81.9% | routes of similar length | 79.6% | +2.3 pts | 2,233 here, 452,851 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 844 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
32 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 2,396 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAH after arriving from IND.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 37% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.7% | 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 1.75% of the time and diverts 0.29% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,347 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 32 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,396 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IND → IAH flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.9% of the time, against 74.7% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 13.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 89.6% on time from 268 flights
- 7 AM: 87.3% on time from 715 flights
- 8 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 86.3% on time from 216 flights
- 12 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 77.0% on time from 207 flights
- 5 PM: 74.3% on time from 851 flights
- 6 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IND → IAH runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 IND → IAH. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 2,275 | 81.9% | 1.58% | -6 min | 6.3% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.2%
- Feb: 83.5%
- Mar: 83.4%
- Apr: 82.6%
- May: 76.2%
- Jun: 75.3%
- Jul: 75.4%
- Aug: 87.3%
- Sep: 87.1%
- Oct: 87.3%
- Nov: 84.8%
- Dec: 82.9%
June is historically the weakest month and August the strongest, a spread of 12.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 83.3% against 81.2% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.1 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,396 IND → IAH 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