Airport month record

IAHAPR

George Bush Intercontinental in April 2026

Departures: 10,022
Month: April 2026
National, same month: 79.8%
Carriers: 11

Historical statistics for April 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s April. For today’s conditions at IAH, see live FAA status.

IAH in April lands a B+, level with the national rate of 79.8%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 10,022 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 718 at 84.3% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 84.3% on time across 718 flights.

On time

80.4%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 9,946 completed departures

Avg delay

69 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.57%

Nationally in April: 0.90%

Whole year

78.4%

IAH across all twelve months

These figures cover 10,022 departures from George Bush Intercontinental in April 2026. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.

Against the year

April next to IAH's other months

Against IAH's own year, April ran 2 points better than the twelve-month rate of 78.4%, which makes it number five of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for IAH in April, at 0.57% against 1.14% across the year. Either side of it, March ran 76.4% on time and May 77.1%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

IAH month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	10,311	68.8%	88 min	1.74%	C
August 2025	9,889	74.1%	74 min	0.87%	C+
September 2025	9,493	85.6%	69 min	0.20%	A+
October 2025	10,247	80.7%	65 min	0.30%	B+
November 2025	10,022	78.2%	73 min	1.06%	B
December 2025	9,971	79.4%	71 min	0.60%	B+
January 2026	9,656	85.7%	74 min	3.07%	A−
February 2026	8,976	85.6%	68 min	1.06%	A
March 2026	10,492	76.4%	95 min	2.89%	B
April 2026 (this page)	10,022	80.4%	69 min	0.57%	B+
May 2026	10,105	77.1%	73 min	0.46%	B+
June 2026	9,903	69.9%	79 min	0.75%	C+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave IAH in April

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,657 flights89.3%
8am–11am1,490 flights86.6%
11am–2pm1,642 flights80.2%
2pm–5pm1,700 flights79.0%
5pm–8pm1,844 flights72.9%
8pm–5am1,689 flights76.1%

Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.3% of the time, against 72.9% for the evening window. That is 16 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 1,844 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 87.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.3%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at IAH in April

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 84.3% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 67.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 397 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at IAH in April 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	6,218	83.1%	57 min	0.16%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	1,228	75.4%	91 min	0.49%	B+
Delta Air Lines	718	84.3%	67 min	0.56%	B+
American Airlines	655	79.3%	99 min	1.22%	B
Frontier Airlines	427	67.9%	96 min	1.41%	C
Spirit Airlines	397	67.5%	60 min	4.79%	C−
Envoy Airthin sample	126	70.7%	78 min	1.59%	C
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	90	89.9%	35 min	1.11%	A
PSA Airlinesthin sample	69	75.4%	80 min	0.00%	B+
Republic Airwaysthin sample	64	61.9%	63 min	1.56%	D
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	30	70.0%	49 min	0.00%	C+

Spirit Airlines cancels 4.8% 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

Busiest routes out of IAH in April

Routes from IAH in April 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
IAH to ORD · Chicago	525	73.0%	80 min	2.86%	C
IAH to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	524	74.6%	84 min	0.57%	C+
IAH to ATL · Atlanta	466	79.3%	59 min	0.43%	B+
IAH to LAX · Los Angeles	437	82.3%	59 min	0.46%	B+
IAH to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	364	78.8%	60 min	1.37%	B
IAH to DEN · Denverthin sample	361	87.8%	66 min	0.00%	A+
IAH to MCO · Orlandothin sample	312	87.4%	87 min	0.32%	A+
IAH to MIA · Miamithin sample	310	80.4%	113 min	0.97%	B+
IAH to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	300	74.2%	62 min	0.33%	C+
IAH to EWR · Newarkthin sample	297	82.7%	59 min	1.01%	B
IAH to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	295	78.4%	81 min	1.36%	B
IAH to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	283	79.8%	62 min	0.00%	B+
IAH to MSY · New Orleansthin sample	270	87.4%	53 min	0.00%	A+
IAH to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	262	79.9%	57 min	1.15%	B
IAH to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	248	84.1%	78 min	0.81%	B+
IAH to AUS · Austinthin sample	230	83.9%	59 min	0.00%	B+
IAH to CLT · Charlottethin sample	217	76.2%	60 min	1.38%	B
IAH to SAT · San Antoniothin sample	215	82.8%	52 min	0.00%	B+
IAH to DTW · Detroitthin sample	182	76.8%	62 min	0.55%	B+
IAH to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	165	86.1%	104 min	0.00%	A+
IAH to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	159	87.3%	83 min	0.63%	A+
IAH to BOS · Bostonthin sample	151	73.5%	51 min	0.00%	C+
IAH to SEA · Seattlethin sample	150	90.7%	59 min	0.00%	A+
IAH to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	146	89.0%	52 min	0.00%	A+
IAH to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	144	81.8%	59 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held IAH up in April

Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 134,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
39%
Carrier
30%
National Airspace System
24%
Extreme weather
6%
Security
0%

39% 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 134,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 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. The split is drawn from 134,366 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.57%, below the national 0.90% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.

7.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.4%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from IAH in April

For a April trip through IAH: expect 80.4% on time and 0.57% cancelled, going by April 2026. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

George Bush Intercontinental (IAH), the whole year
IAH in July68.8%
IAH in August74.1%
IAH in September85.6%
IAH in October80.7%
IAH in November78.2%
IAH in December79.4%
IAH in January85.7%
IAH in February85.6%
IAH in March76.4%
IAH in May77.1%
IAH in June69.9%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures