Airport month record

IAHOCT

George Bush Intercontinental in October 2025

Departures: 10,247
Month: October 2025
National, same month: 79.7%
Carriers: 11

Historical statistics for October 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s October. For today’s conditions at IAH, see live FAA status.

IAH in October lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 79.7%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 10,247 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 1,087 at 83.5% on time.

SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 83.5% on time across 1,087 flights.

On time

80.7%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 10,197 completed departures

Avg delay

65 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.30%

Nationally in October: 0.53%

Whole year

78.4%

IAH across all twelve months

These figures cover 10,247 departures from George Bush Intercontinental in October 2025. 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

October next to IAH's other months

Against IAH's own year, October ran 2 points better than the twelve-month rate of 78.4%, which makes it number four of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for IAH in October, at 0.30% against 1.14% across the year. Either side of it, September ran 85.6% on time and November 78.2%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.

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 (this page)	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	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 October

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 18 points, against 4 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,832 flights90.4%
8am–11am1,285 flights84.2%
11am–2pm1,689 flights84.6%
2pm–5pm1,780 flights78.9%
5pm–8pm1,883 flights72.9%
8pm–5am1,778 flights74.4%

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 90.4% of the time, against 72.9% for the evening window. That is 18 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 1,883 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.9%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at IAH in October

The five carriers here are closely matched: 4 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.

Carriers at IAH in October 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	6,416	80.9%	53 min	0.14%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	1,087	83.5%	72 min	0.00%	B+
Delta Air Lines	746	81.1%	92 min	0.94%	B+
American Airlines	635	80.0%	118 min	0.79%	B+
Spirit Airlines	594	82.2%	68 min	0.51%	B+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	355	73.0%	94 min	0.85%	C+
Envoy Airthin sample	111	85.3%	66 min	1.80%	A
Republic Airwaysthin sample	104	74.8%	37 min	0.00%	C+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	96	78.5%	88 min	2.08%	B
PSA Airlinesthin sample	66	69.7%	61 min	0.00%	C+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	37	44.4%	87 min	0.00%	F+

No carrier stands out. SkyWest tops the table at 83.5%, 4 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of IAH in October

Routes from IAH in October 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
IAH to ORD · Chicago	517	79.2%	106 min	0.58%	B+
IAH to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	503	80.6%	60 min	1.39%	B
IAH to LAX · Los Angeles	493	84.6%	57 min	0.00%	B+
IAH to ATL · Atlanta	438	80.3%	64 min	0.23%	B+
IAH to DEN · Denver	396	83.0%	53 min	0.25%	B+
IAH to LGA · New York	376	68.4%	89 min	1.86%	C
IAH to EWR · Newarkthin sample	336	69.2%	63 min	0.60%	C+
IAH to MCO · Orlandothin sample	308	86.6%	95 min	0.65%	A+
IAH to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	306	82.2%	48 min	0.65%	B+
IAH to MIA · Miamithin sample	304	83.8%	101 min	0.33%	B+
IAH to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	292	83.2%	60 min	0.00%	B+
IAH to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	291	77.9%	49 min	0.00%	B+
IAH to MSY · New Orleansthin sample	286	85.3%	56 min	0.00%	A+
IAH to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	265	86.4%	48 min	0.00%	A+
IAH to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	254	75.1%	60 min	0.00%	B+
IAH to AUS · Austinthin sample	237	80.2%	49 min	0.00%	B+
IAH to SAT · San Antoniothin sample	213	85.4%	58 min	0.00%	A+
IAH to BOS · Bostonthin sample	189	56.4%	80 min	0.00%	D+
IAH to CLT · Charlottethin sample	186	82.2%	80 min	0.54%	B+
IAH to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	180	85.0%	53 min	0.00%	A+
IAH to SEA · Seattlethin sample	175	80.5%	51 min	0.57%	B+
IAH to DTW · Detroitthin sample	171	87.7%	61 min	0.00%	A+
IAH to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	161	77.6%	54 min	0.00%	B+
IAH to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	151	80.1%	87 min	0.00%	B+
IAH to SAN · San Diegothin sample	147	84.9%	39 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held IAH up in October

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 128,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
34%
Carrier
34%
National Airspace System
29%
Extreme weather
2%
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 128,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 17 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 127,838 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.30%, below the national 0.53% 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.

5.6% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.3%. 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from IAH in October

For a October trip through IAH: expect 80.7% on time and 0.30% cancelled, going by October 2025. 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 November78.2%
IAH in December79.4%
IAH in January85.7%
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