Airport month record

IAHJAN

George Bush Intercontinental in January 2026

Departures: 9,656
Month: January 2026
National, same month: 79.2%
Carriers: 9

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

IAH in January earns an A−. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 7 points better than the national rate of 79.2%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 9,656 flights, of which United Airlines flew 6,172 at 88.1% on time.

United Airlines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 88.1% on time across 6,172 flights.

On time

85.7%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 9,347 completed departures

Avg delay

74 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

3.07%

Nationally in January: 4.71%

Whole year

78.4%

IAH across all twelve months

These figures cover 9,656 departures from George Bush Intercontinental in January 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

January next to IAH's other months

Against IAH's own year, January ran 7 points better than the twelve-month rate of 78.4%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations are where January stands out: 3.07% of scheduled departures were called off, 2.7 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, December ran 79.4% on time and February 85.6%, 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 (this page)	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	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 January

Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 9,656 flights.

5am–8am1,527 flights88.5%
8am–11am1,434 flights84.4%
11am–2pm1,678 flights87.1%
2pm–5pm1,871 flights83.4%
5pm–8pm1,658 flights84.1%
8pm–5am1,488 flights86.8%

Scale runs 75% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The early departures do better, though not dramatically: 88.5% on time for the 5am–8am window against 83.4% for 2pm–5pm. Worth taking if the schedule allows, not worth an extra connection. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 1,871 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 89.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 78.8%. 11 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at IAH in January

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 88.1% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 76.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 449 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at IAH in January 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	6,172	88.1%	58 min	1.80%	A
SkyWest Airlines	1,093	82.3%	96 min	5.12%	B−
Delta Air Lines	640	84.8%	83 min	4.22%	B−
American Airlines	589	85.1%	161 min	9.00%	A−
Spirit Airlines	449	76.3%	64 min	5.12%	B−
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	350	74.2%	71 min	2.57%	C
Republic Airwaysthin sample	127	82.1%	108 min	7.87%	B−
Envoy Airthin sample	124	76.0%	65 min	2.42%	B
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	89	73.6%	46 min	2.25%	C

American Airlines cancels 9.0% 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 January

Routes from IAH in January 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
IAH to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	475	83.0%	118 min	8.21%	B−
IAH to ORD · Chicago	467	78.7%	60 min	1.28%	B
IAH to LAX · Los Angeles	437	86.1%	66 min	1.37%	A
IAH to ATL · Atlanta	395	81.2%	73 min	4.30%	B−
IAH to DEN · Denver	385	87.2%	65 min	0.26%	A+
IAH to MCO · Orlandothin sample	350	89.9%	58 min	1.14%	A
IAH to MIA · Miamithin sample	341	83.0%	100 min	1.76%	B
IAH to EWR · Newarkthin sample	321	85.1%	55 min	4.05%	A−
IAH to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	303	85.2%	85 min	1.32%	A
IAH to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	287	87.9%	57 min	5.23%	A−
IAH to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	282	87.9%	45 min	0.71%	A+
IAH to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	282	84.0%	102 min	6.74%	B−
IAH to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	271	88.3%	57 min	2.58%	A
IAH to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	254	86.8%	95 min	1.57%	A
IAH to AUS · Austinthin sample	239	85.8%	67 min	2.93%	A
IAH to MSY · New Orleansthin sample	236	87.7%	48 min	0.00%	A+
IAH to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	193	91.1%	52 min	1.04%	A
IAH to CLT · Charlottethin sample	190	91.1%	94 min	11.05%	A−
IAH to SAT · San Antoniothin sample	179	90.4%	55 min	1.12%	A
IAH to TPA · Tampathin sample	145	89.0%	51 min	0.00%	A+
IAH to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	145	86.7%	130 min	6.90%	A−
IAH to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	138	83.2%	59 min	0.72%	B+
IAH to SEA · Seattlethin sample	134	75.2%	49 min	0.75%	B+
IAH to DTW · Detroitthin sample	132	78.3%	98 min	1.52%	B
IAH to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	129	88.8%	49 min	3.10%	A−

Delay causes

What held IAH up in January

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 42% of the 99,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

Carrier
42%
Late-arriving aircraft
34%
National Airspace System
19%
Extreme weather
4%
Security
0%

34% 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 99,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 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 99,053 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations run at 3.07%, against 4.71% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 30 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.

5.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 7.6%. 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 January

For a January trip through IAH: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 85.7% on time with 3.07% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular 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 February85.6%
IAH in March76.4%
IAH in April80.4%
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