Carrier performance at one airport
AA→IAH
American Airlines at George Bush Intercontinental
- Departures
- 7,653
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 6
- Rank here
- #4 of 10
American Airlines at Houston lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 2.2 hours on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 7,653 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 8,344 at 80.3% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs about a point behind the 78.0% 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
76.8%
7,438 completed departures
Avg delay
132 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.61%
At IAH, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at IAH
These figures cover 7,653 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at IAH, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 80.3% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 60.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 493 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 8,344 | 80.3% | 86 min | 1.89% | B |
| United Airlines | 73,829 | 79.3% | 67 min | 0.80% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,208 | 77.2% | 56 min | 1.16% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 7,653 | 76.8% | 132 min | 2.61% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 14,441 | 76.2% | 94 min | 1.45% | B |
| Envoy Air | 1,489 | 76.1% | 80 min | 2.42% | B |
| Republic Airways | 874 | 74.2% | 74 min | 3.89% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 6,056 | 74.0% | 74 min | 2.77% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 4,514 | 69.1% | 89 min | 1.71% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 493 | 60.3% | 80 min | 2.23% | D |
Republic Airways cancels 3.9% 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 | 2,453 | 73.3% | 121 min | 3.59% | C− |
| IAH to CLT · Charlotte | 1,629 | 81.9% | 147 min | 2.09% | B |
| IAH to MIA · Miami | 1,507 | 78.7% | 116 min | 1.53% | B |
| IAH to ORD · Chicago | 775 | 67.6% | 129 min | 2.97% | C |
| IAH to PHL · Philadelphia | 710 | 78.6% | 159 min | 3.38% | B− |
| IAH to PHX · Phoenix | 577 | 82.4% | 164 min | 1.39% | B |
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 29 points, against 20 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,670 flights86.2%
- 8am–11am1,489 flights81.9%
- 11am–2pm1,087 flights75.8%
- 2pm–5pm943 flights72.6%
- 5pm–8pm1,412 flights57.6%
- 8pm–5am52 flights69.2%
Scale runs 50% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 57.6% on time, against 86.2% 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.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 66.7% on time, 19 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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 8%Extreme weather
- 8%National Airspace System
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 227,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit.
Cancellations run at 2.61%, against 1.80% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 7,653 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 July 66.7%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else.
Common questions
American Airlines at IAH
How often is American Airlines at IAH delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.2% of the 7,653 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 2.2 hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at IAH?
Delta Air Lines leads at 80.3% on time across 8,344 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 60.3%, a gap of 20 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 86.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 57.6%, 29 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 July delays on American Airlines at IAH?
July is the weakest month at 66.7% on time, compared with 85.8% in February. Across the year that is 19 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, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.