Route profile
JFK→IAH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New York to Houston, 1,417 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 11% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,124 flights. How this is calculated
JFK → IAH arrives on time 71.9% of the time; the return trip, IAH → JFK, arrives on time 65.1% of the time, a 6.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair. JFK → IAH also cancels 2.40% of flights, against 3.65% for IAH → JFK.
JFK → IAH spends 38.0 minutes on the ground on a 1,417-mile trip: 26.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at JFK and 11.2 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 JFK to IAH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
JFK to IAH struggles most at 1 PM: 60.7% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 15.2 points behind the 75.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 16.4 points.
Saturday is the day JFK to IAH slips furthest against routes of similar length, 66.9% on time where they average 78.7%, 11.8 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 12.2 points.
JFK to IAH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 60.7% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | −15.2 pts | 163 here, 93,927 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 66.9% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | −11.8 pts | 151 here, 212,862 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 1,417 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
63 min late
against a median of 4 min early
JFK → IAH has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 4 min early, but the worst tenth are 67 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 1,124 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAH after arriving from JFK.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 44% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 27% | High risk |
| 60 min | 18% | High risk |
| 90 min | 10% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.4% | 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 2.40% of the time and diverts 0.71% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,089 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 63 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,124 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why JFK → IAH runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 JFK → IAH. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue | 855 | 68.2% | 1.99% | 0 min | 11.7% |
| Delta Air Lines | 269 | 83.7% | 3.72% | -14 min | 7.0% |
JetBlue flew 76.1% of the 1,124 flights listed. Delta Air Lines cancelled 3.72% of its flights here against 1.99% for JetBlue.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 15.5 percentage points more often than JetBlue on this route.
Other ways to fly New York to Houston
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
EWR → IAH is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 77.7% on time, against 71.9% for JFK → IAH.
Flying to IAH from the New York area? Compare JFK, LGA, EWR for IAH, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| B6281 JetBlue | 6:00 AM | 630 | 69.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 12.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-06 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 74.3% against 77.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,124 JFK → 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