Carrier performance at one airport
AA→IAH
American Airlines at George Bush Intercontinental
- Departures
- 7,927
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 6
- Rank here
- #6 of 11
American Airlines at Houston lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 7,927 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 8,429 at 81.0% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs 2 points behind the 79.1% weighted average across all carriers at IAH. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
77.5%
7,721 completed departures
Avg delay
122 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.35%
At IAH, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 11 carriers clearing the floor at IAH
These figures cover 7,927 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at IAH, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 81.0% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 50.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 835 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 8,429 | 81.0% | 83 min | 1.90% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,195 | 80.6% | 55 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 74,201 | 80.6% | 63 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| Envoy Air | 1,270 | 78.0% | 91 min | 1.81% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 14,187 | 77.8% | 94 min | 1.02% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 7,927 | 77.5% | 122 min | 2.35% | B |
| Republic Airways | 873 | 74.8% | 79 min | 4.12% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 4,114 | 74.5% | 73 min | 3.23% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 5,339 | 70.9% | 86 min | 2.38% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 566 | 68.1% | 123 min | 6.89% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 835 | 50.5% | 103 min | 4.79% | F− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.9% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where American Airlines flies from IAH
American Airlines operates 6 routes out of IAH with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IAH to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 2,513 | 75.2% | 120 min | 3.02% | B− |
| IAH to CLT · Charlotte | 1,607 | 84.1% | 142 min | 1.68% | B |
| IAH to MIA · Miami | 1,565 | 78.8% | 114 min | 1.21% | B |
| IAH to ORD · Chicago | 883 | 67.3% | 118 min | 3.51% | C− |
| IAH to PHL · Philadelphia | 724 | 77.6% | 97 min | 3.18% | B− |
| IAH to PHX · Phoenix | 632 | 80.0% | 151 min | 1.58% | B |
Flight by flight
American Airlines flight numbers from IAH
3 American Airlines flight numbers leaving IAH flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 28 points, against 31 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,720 flights87.9%
- 8am–11am1,470 flights81.8%
- 11am–2pm1,212 flights74.1%
- 2pm–5pm1,109 flights71.7%
- 5pm–8pm1,354 flights59.7%
- 8pm–5am62 flights67.7%
Scale runs 50% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 59.7% on time, against 87.9% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 2,720 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 69.6% on time, 16 points below February, the best at 85.8%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. July was the busiest month here, with 805 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 10%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 212,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 212,121 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.35% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.25%.
10.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 7,927 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 85.8% on time and June 69.6%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 7,721 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at IAH
How often is American Airlines at IAH delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 22.5% of the 7,927 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at IAH?
Delta Air Lines leads at 81.0% on time across 8,429 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 50.5%, a gap of 31 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on American Airlines at IAH?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 59.7%, 28 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are June delays on American Airlines at IAH?
June is the weakest month at 69.6% on time, compared with 85.8% in February. Across the year that is 16 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.