Route profile
MSP→IAH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Minneapolis to Houston, 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 65% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,755 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MSP → IAH arrives on time 81.3% of the time; the return trip, IAH → MSP, arrives on time 78.7% of the time, a 2.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MSP → IAH spends 28.7 minutes on the ground on a 1,034-mile trip: 18.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MSP and 9.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAH.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 95% of 4,467 comparable routes.
83.6% on time on the best day (Wednesday) against 79.5% on the worst (Friday).
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where MSP to IAH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MSP to IAH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 77.3% arrive on time, 11.3 points ahead of the 66.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.5 points.
MSP to IAH struggles most at 11 AM: 74.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5.4 points behind the 79.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.5 points.
MSP to IAH holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 80.9% on time to their 73.1%, a 7.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
March is kinder to MSP to IAH than to routes of similar length: 87.2% on time against 75.2%, 12 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.3 points.
United Airlines does better on MSP to IAH than on its routes of similar length: 86.6% on time here, 80.5% there, 6.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.7 points.
MSP to IAH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 77.3% | routes of similar length | 66.0% | +11.3 pts | 278 here, 179,300 there |
| Hour: 11 AM departures | 74.5% | routes of similar length | 79.9% | −5.4 pts | 322 here, 185,287 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 80.9% | routes of similar length | 73.1% | +7.8 pts | 776 here, 417,123 there |
| Month: March | 87.2% | routes of similar length | 75.2% | +12.0 pts | 422 here, 250,028 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 86.6% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | +6.1 pts | 1,579 here, 389,360 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 MSP → IAH flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MSP → IAH cancelled 55 of 5,755 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 105. The reason filed most often was the airline, 50.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 206 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 55 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.
28 cancellations, 50.9% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
25 cancellations, 45.5% 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, 3.6% 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.
55 coded cancellations were recorded on MSP → IAH; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
39 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 5,755 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAH after arriving from MSP.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.2% | 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 0.96% of the time and diverts 0.56% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,668 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 39 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,755 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MSP → IAH flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.4% of the time, against 74.0% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 13.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 85.0% on time from 1,417 flights
- 8 AM: 93.2% on time from 531 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 83.7% on time from 507 flights
- 11 AM: 74.5% on time from 326 flights
- 12 PM: 85.9% on time from 288 flights
- 1 PM: 84.3% on time from 175 flights
- 2 PM: 76.7% on time from 928 flights
- 3 PM: 77.4% on time from 205 flights
- 4 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 67.4% on time from 138 flights
- 7 PM: 77.3% on time from 283 flights
- 8 PM: 74.0% on time from 635 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why MSP → 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for MSP → 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 4,024 | 79.4% | 0.84% | -8 min | 8.0% |
| United Airlines | 1,605 | 86.6% | 1.31% | -11 min | 4.7% |
Delta Air Lines flew 71.5% of the 5,629 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 7.2 percentage points more often than Delta Air Lines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL2656 (7:00 AM) arrived on time 84.5% of the time, 12.3 points more often than DL2683 (8:00 PM) at 72.2%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.3%
- Feb: 88.7%
- Mar: 87.2%
- Apr: 78.0%
- May: 77.5%
- Jun: 72.4%
- Jul: 75.2%
- Aug: 80.0%
- Sep: 89.3%
- Oct: 85.1%
- Nov: 84.0%
- Dec: 79.2%
June is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 16.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 80.4% from 166 flights
- August 2023: 85.4% from 174 flights
- September 2023: 88.0% from 168 flights
- October 2023: 80.7% from 166 flights
- November 2023: 89.5% from 162 flights
- December 2023: 93.8% from 146 flights
- January 2024: 84.4% from 152 flights
- February 2024: 94.0% from 151 flights
- March 2024: 90.0% from 133 flights
- April 2024: 76.7% from 172 flights
- May 2024: 71.3% from 167 flights
- June 2024: 75.0% from 137 flights
- July 2024: 67.4% from 147 flights
- August 2024: 77.2% from 147 flights
- September 2024: 90.3% from 146 flights
- October 2024: 90.8% from 173 flights
- November 2024: 82.8% from 153 flights
- December 2024: 78.0% from 151 flights
- January 2025: 86.9% from 145 flights
- February 2025: 82.0% from 122 flights
- March 2025: 90.4% from 136 flights
- April 2025: 70.3% from 146 flights
- May 2025: 72.4% from 165 flights
- June 2025: 66.3% from 187 flights
- July 2025: 72.9% from 143 flights
- August 2025: 76.4% from 141 flights
- September 2025: 89.8% from 137 flights
- October 2025: 83.3% from 151 flights
- November 2025: 79.4% from 157 flights
- December 2025: 65.2% from 146 flights
- January 2026: 81.6% from 138 flights
- February 2026: 88.7% from 134 flights
- March 2026: 82.1% from 166 flights
- April 2026: 86.0% from 165 flights
- May 2026: 87.7% from 181 flights
- June 2026: 76.9% from 176 flights
- July 2026: 77.9% from 208 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.2% against 79.7% in the 12 months before — improving by 1.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,755 MSP → 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