Flight number record
UA 1982
United Airlines · Des Moines to Houston
- Route
- DSM → IAH
- Departs
- 06:20
- Flights
- 322
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s UA 1982, check with United Airlines.
UA 1982 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 12 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 322 flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, UA 1982's record is 12 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 116 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
88.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 316 completed flights
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.55%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
3.8%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 322 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 11 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 1982 flies
UA 1982 flies DSM to IAH without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 06:20, used on 81 of 322 flights, with 06:15 (50 flights) and 08:15 (37 flights) next.
- Departs 06:2081 flights25.2%
- Departs 06:1550 flights15.5%
- Departs 08:1537 flights11.5%
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 06:20 departure sits in the 5am–8am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 89.3%, and UA 1982 runs level with that at 88.9%. 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 1982 next to DSM to IAH
Every carrier on DSM to IAH combined arrived on time 88.5% of the time across 329 flights, so UA 1982 is about level with it. 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 1982thin sample | 322 | 88.9% | 78 min | 1.55% | A |
| All United Airlines on DSM–IAHthin sample | 325 | 89.0% | 78 min | 1.54% | A |
| All carriers on DSM–IAHthin sample | 329 | 88.5% | 81 min | 1.52% | A |
| United Airlines, whole network | 830,825 | 78.8% | 73 min | 1.02% | B |
Across the year
UA 1982 quarter by quarter
UA 1982 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 93.3% on time and its weakest Apr–Jun 2026 at 82.2%, a swing of 11 points on roughly 64 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 flights93.3%
- Oct–Dec 202577 flights93.3%
- Jan–Mar 202684 flights90.1%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights82.2%
- Jul–Sep 202640 flights90.0%
Scale runs 75% to 100%.
By weekday, UA 1982 ranged from 82.6% on Tuesday to 93.3% on Wednesday. With about 46 flights behind each day, a spread of 11 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.
Arrival by arrival
How late UA 1982 runs when it is late
UA 1982 often beats the schedule: 125 of 316 completed flights, 40%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 35 late arrivals split 17 under half an hour, 6 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 12 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early125 flights39.6%
- Within 15 min156 flights49.4%
- 15–29 min late17 flights5.4%
- 30–59 min late6 flights1.9%
- 1–2 hours late6 flights1.9%
- 2+ hours late6 flights1.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 316 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
6 of 29 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 21% of them. 12 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for UA 1982
The latest arrival of the period was on 19 February 2026, 10 hours 30 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 19 February 2026 | 10 hours 30 minutes | Carrier |
| 19 May 2026 | 5 hours 38 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 14 January 2026 | 4 hours 29 minutes | Carrier |
| 17 February 2026 | 3 hours 5 minutes | Carrier |
| 13 November 2025 | 2 hours 1 minute | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why UA 1982 runs late
Carrier accounts for 62% of the 2,722 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 62%Carrier
- 24%National Airspace System
- 12%Late-arriving aircraft
- 2%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 62%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 1,696 of the 2,722 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 2,722 delay minutes reported on UA 1982.
Cancellations sit at 1.55% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.31%.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.8% 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 802 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.
The same number turns up on five other city pairs in the data, including IAH to FLL (109), SFO to CLE (21) and RSW to LAX (19), but none flew often enough under UA 1982 to report a rate for. Carriers move flight numbers between routes, so the figures on this page apply to DSM to IAH only.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 322 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 1982
For a booking, read UA 1982 as 88.9% on time with 1.55% cancelled over 322 flights. Those are rates from the past twelve months, not a forecast for any particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) 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.