Route profile
SLC→IAH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Salt Lake City to Houston, 1,195 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 75% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,057 flights. How this is calculated
SLC → IAH arrives on time 83.5% of the time; the return trip, IAH → SLC, arrives on time 81.7% of the time.
SLC → IAH spends 28.6 minutes on the ground on a 1,195-mile trip: 17.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SLC and 10.8 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 94% of 4,467 comparable routes.
86.5% on time on the best day (Tuesday) against 82.2% on the worst (Sunday).
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 SLC to IAH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SLC to IAH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 83.9% arrive on time, 15.1 points ahead of the 68.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.2 points.
SLC to IAH holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 82.2% on time to their 73.4%, a 8.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
February is kinder to SLC to IAH than to routes of similar length: 89.2% on time against 80.4%, 8.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.8 points.
United Airlines does better on SLC to IAH than on its routes of similar length: 85.4% on time here, 81.2% there, 4.2 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.5 points.
SLC to IAH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 83.9% | routes of similar length | 68.8% | +15.1 pts | 379 here, 113,550 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 82.2% | routes of similar length | 73.4% | +8.8 pts | 848 here, 290,571 there |
| Month: February | 89.2% | routes of similar length | 80.4% | +8.8 pts | 527 here, 148,822 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 85.4% | routes of similar length | 81.2% | +4.2 pts | 2,535 here, 256,979 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 1,195 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 SLC → IAH flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SLC → IAH cancelled 64 of 6,057 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 95. The reason filed most often was the airline, 59.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 159 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 64 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.
38 cancellations, 59.4% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
21 cancellations, 32.8% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
5 cancellations, 7.8% 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.
64 coded cancellations were recorded on SLC → IAH; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
30 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 6,057 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAH after arriving from SLC.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.9% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.6% | 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 1.06% of the time and diverts 0.38% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,970 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 30 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,057 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SLC → IAH flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.7% of the time, against 71.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 18.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 87.9% on time from 401 flights
- 7 AM: 90.7% on time from 1,034 flights
- 8 AM: 89.2% on time from 521 flights
- 9 AM: 87.4% on time from 475 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 81.6% on time from 322 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 79.0% on time from 1,339 flights
- 2 PM: 79.3% on time from 270 flights
- 3 PM: 83.0% on time from 150 flights
- 4 PM: 83.9% on time from 386 flights
- 5 PM: 79.4% on time from 872 flights
- 6 PM to 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 71.1% on time from 189 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SLC → 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 SLC → 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,161 | 81.8% | 0.41% | -7 min | 6.1% |
| United Airlines | 2,591 | 85.4% | 1.81% | -8 min | 5.1% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 305 | 84.5% | 1.31% | -11 min | 5.4% |
Delta Air Lines flew 52.2% of the 6,057 flights listed. United Airlines cancelled 1.81% of its flights here against 0.41% for Delta Air Lines.
United Airlines arrived on time 3.6 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.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 4.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.3%
- Feb: 89.2%
- Mar: 83.3%
- Apr: 82.5%
- May: 78.0%
- Jun: 79.2%
- Jul: 77.1%
- Aug: 81.9%
- Sep: 88.5%
- Oct: 88.2%
- Nov: 86.1%
- Dec: 84.8%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 12.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 80.0% from 183 flights
- August 2023: 84.1% from 184 flights
- September 2023: 86.4% from 165 flights
- October 2023: 84.7% from 145 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (110)
- December 2023: 88.9% from 144 flights
- January 2024: 77.5% from 185 flights
- February 2024: 93.8% from 177 flights
- March 2024: 81.8% from 210 flights
- April 2024: 78.5% from 150 flights
- May 2024: 75.7% from 151 flights
- June 2024: 76.7% from 152 flights
- July 2024: 75.7% from 152 flights
- August 2024: 84.1% from 160 flights
- September 2024: 87.8% from 173 flights
- October 2024: 90.5% from 170 flights
- November 2024: 81.3% from 136 flights
- December 2024: 77.5% from 172 flights
- January 2025: 84.7% from 179 flights
- February 2025: 82.8% from 174 flights
- March 2025: 84.5% from 207 flights
- April 2025: 83.5% from 176 flights
- May 2025: 77.7% from 149 flights
- June 2025: 81.0% from 150 flights
- July 2025: 70.7% from 154 flights
- August 2025: 77.2% from 160 flights
- September 2025: 91.3% from 161 flights
- October 2025: 89.0% from 146 flights
- November 2025: 86.1% from 137 flights
- December 2025: 88.5% from 184 flights
- January 2026: 90.1% from 193 flights
- February 2026: 90.9% from 176 flights
- March 2026: 83.6% from 211 flights
- April 2026: 85.3% from 144 flights
- May 2026: 80.4% from 149 flights
- June 2026: 80.0% from 142 flights
- July 2026: 81.4% from 146 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.5% against 82.4% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.1 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,057 SLC → 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