Flight number record
UA 1886
United Airlines · Houston to Newark
- Route
- IAH → EWR
- Departs
- 07:20
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s UA 1886, check with United Airlines.
UA 1886 earns an A. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 11 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, UA 1886's record is 11 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 112 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
88.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 358 completed flights
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.64%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
4.5%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 9 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Schedule
When UA 1886 flies
UA 1886 flies IAH to EWR without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 07:20, used on 155 of 365 flights, with 08:00 (117 flights) and 07:34 (37 flights) next.
- Departs 07:20155 flights42.5%
- Departs 08:00117 flights32.1%
- Departs 07:3437 flights10.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of scheduled departures at each local time. Times used on fewer than one flight in ten are not listed.
A 07:20 departure sits in the 5am–8am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 89.3%, and UA 1886 runs level with that at 88.5%. Early departures usually start with an aircraft that has not flown yet that day, which is most of why the window does well.
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Against the route
UA 1886 next to IAH to EWR
Every carrier on IAH to EWR combined arrived on time 75.4% of the time across 3,717 flights, so UA 1886 is 13 points ahead of it. United flew 3,510 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 75.2% on time. Across its whole network United Airlines managed 78.8%, which this flight beats by 10 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UA 1886 | 365 | 88.5% | 72 min | 1.64% | A |
| All United Airlines on IAH–EWR | 3,510 | 75.2% | 72 min | 1.57% | B |
| All carriers on IAH–EWR | 3,717 | 75.4% | 71 min | 1.86% | B |
| United Airlines, whole network | 830,825 | 78.8% | 73 min | 1.02% | B |
Across the year
UA 1886 quarter by quarter
UA 1886 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 100.0% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 83.7%, a swing of 16 points on roughly 73 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights100.0%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights83.7%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights83.7%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights91.2%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights93.2%
Scale runs 75% to 100%.
By weekday, UA 1886 ranged from 80.4% on Saturday to 92.2% on Thursday. With about 52 flights behind each day, a spread of 12 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.
Arrival by arrival
How late UA 1886 runs when it is late
UA 1886 often beats the schedule: 115 of 358 completed flights, 32%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 41 late arrivals split 16 under half an hour, 9 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 16 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early115 flights32.1%
- Within 15 min202 flights56.4%
- 15–29 min late16 flights4.5%
- 30–59 min late9 flights2.5%
- 1–2 hours late6 flights1.7%
- 2+ hours late10 flights2.8%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 358 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
6 of 30 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 20% of them. 17 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for UA 1886
The latest arrival of the period was on 14 February 2026, 4 hours 54 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as a late-arriving aircraft.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 14 February 2026 | 4 hours 54 minutes | Carrier |
| 1 February 2026 | 3 hours 25 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 14 January 2026 | 3 hours 11 minutes | Carrier |
| 11 April 2026 | 3 hours 7 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 8 March 2026 | 2 hours 54 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why UA 1886 runs late
Carrier accounts for 45% of the 2,969 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Carrier
- 26%Late-arriving aircraft
- 19%National Airspace System
- 9%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 45%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 1,346 of the 2,969 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 2,969 delay minutes reported on UA 1886.
Cancellations sit at 1.64% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.5% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
The 1,400 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
Every one of the 365 flights under UA 1886 in the data flew IAH to EWR. The number was not reused on any other city pair, which makes this a clean record of one route.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 365 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking UA 1886
For a booking, read UA 1886 as 88.5% on time with 1.64% cancelled over 365 flights. Those are rates from the past twelve months, not a forecast for any particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- IAH to EWR, every carrier and departure
- EWR to IAH, the return direction
- United Airlines 404 on the same route66.6%
- United Airlines 1444 on the same route76.3%
- United Airlines 1397 on the same route73.2%
- United Airlines 1797 on the same route93.6%
- United Airlines 2608 on the same route59.1%
- United Airlines 700 on the same route63.5%
- George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- United Airlines on-time record
- Every United Airlines flight number with a record
- The most and least reliable flight numbers in the US
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
A flight number here means United Airlines’s own number as it reports to the DOT. How the figures are computed is on the methodology page.
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.