Route profile
PHX→IAH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Phoenix to Houston, 1,009 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 66% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 8,550 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
PHX → IAH arrives on time 83.0% of the time; the return trip, IAH → PHX, arrives on time 78.9% of the time, a 4.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PHX → IAH spends 29.0 minutes on the ground on a 1,009-mile trip: 18.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PHX and 10.9 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 PHX to IAH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PHX to IAH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 82.5% arrive on time, 16.5 points ahead of the 66.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.1 points.
PHX to IAH struggles most at 8 AM: 83.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 2.2 points behind the 86.1% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
PHX to IAH holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 83.0% on time to their 75.9%, a 7.1 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.2 points.
December is kinder to PHX to IAH than to routes of similar length: 88.2% on time against 77.5%, 10.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.5 points.
United Airlines does better on PHX to IAH than on its routes of similar length: 86.0% on time here, 80.4% there, 5.6 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
PHX to IAH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 82.5% | routes of similar length | 66.0% | +16.5 pts | 251 here, 147,312 there |
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 83.9% | routes of similar length | 86.1% | −2.2 pts | 1,070 here, 197,385 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 83.0% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | +7.1 pts | 1,291 here, 434,547 there |
| Month: December | 88.2% | routes of similar length | 77.5% | +10.7 pts | 730 here, 246,626 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 86.0% | routes of similar length | 80.4% | +5.6 pts | 5,025 here, 428,750 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 1,009 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 PHX → IAH flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
PHX → IAH cancelled 85 of 8,550 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 101. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 55.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 182 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 85 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.
47 cancellations, 55.3% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
27 cancellations, 31.8% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
11 cancellations, 12.9% 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.
85 coded cancellations were recorded on PHX → IAH; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
34 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 8,550 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAH after arriving from PHX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.5% | 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 0.99% of the time and diverts 0.43% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 8,428 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 34 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 8,550 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PHX → IAH flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 89.0% of the time, against 75.7% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 13.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 91.9% on time from 650 flights
- 7 AM: 91.0% on time from 414 flights
- 8 AM: 83.9% on time from 1,088 flights
- 9 AM: 88.0% on time from 792 flights
- 10 AM: 88.2% on time from 494 flights
- 11 AM: 92.9% on time from 329 flights
- 12 PM: 78.6% on time from 829 flights
- 1 PM: 84.8% on time from 633 flights
- 2 PM: 77.9% on time from 263 flights
- 3 PM: 80.3% on time from 467 flights
- 4 PM: 77.6% on time from 883 flights
- 5 PM: 78.2% on time from 418 flights
- 6 PM: 70.3% on time from 525 flights
- 7 PM: 78.6% on time from 386 flights
- 8 PM: 82.5% on time from 255 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why PHX → IAH 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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for PHX → IAH. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PHX → IAH, at 41.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 89.0% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 75.7%.
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 | 5,096 | 86.0% | 0.92% | -8 min | 5.6% |
| American Airlines | 1,335 | 78.9% | 1.12% | -7 min | 8.1% |
| Frontier Airlines | 882 | 73.7% | 0.91% | -4 min | 9.4% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 874 | 80.6% | 1.14% | -5 min | 8.1% |
| Envoy Air | 355 | 85.0% | 1.41% | -6 min | 3.5% |
United Airlines flew 59.7% of the 8,542 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 12.3 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.4 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 87.1%
- Feb: 89.8%
- Mar: 82.9%
- Apr: 86.1%
- May: 81.5%
- Jun: 72.6%
- Jul: 72.0%
- Aug: 81.5%
- Sep: 87.8%
- Oct: 82.9%
- Nov: 85.1%
- Dec: 88.2%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 17.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 77.0% from 164 flights
- August 2023: 87.3% from 166 flights
- September 2023: 89.2% from 168 flights
- October 2023: 85.3% from 190 flights
- November 2023: 87.9% from 223 flights
- December 2023: 90.4% from 218 flights
- January 2024: 84.7% from 210 flights
- February 2024: 93.9% from 197 flights
- March 2024: 88.4% from 235 flights
- April 2024: 86.4% from 224 flights
- May 2024: 78.1% from 215 flights
- June 2024: 70.9% from 204 flights
- July 2024: 62.8% from 206 flights
- August 2024: 78.7% from 192 flights
- September 2024: 88.6% from 194 flights
- October 2024: 85.8% from 225 flights
- November 2024: 89.9% from 229 flights
- December 2024: 87.0% from 248 flights
- January 2025: 87.6% from 228 flights
- February 2025: 86.2% from 255 flights
- March 2025: 86.6% from 344 flights
- April 2025: 88.0% from 338 flights
- May 2025: 85.2% from 287 flights
- June 2025: 71.3% from 218 flights
- July 2025: 74.0% from 215 flights
- August 2025: 79.3% from 196 flights
- September 2025: 85.7% from 191 flights
- October 2025: 78.7% from 254 flights
- November 2025: 78.6% from 266 flights
- December 2025: 87.6% from 269 flights
- January 2026: 88.7% from 251 flights
- February 2026: 90.1% from 244 flights
- March 2026: 74.1% from 301 flights
- April 2026: 83.3% from 249 flights
- May 2026: 80.2% from 257 flights
- June 2026: 75.2% from 234 flights
- July 2026: 74.0% from 245 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.2% against 84.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 8,550 PHX → 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