Route reliability record
IAH→EWR
Houston to Newark
- Flights
- 3,717
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,400 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 3,717 IAH to EWR flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
Best time to fly IAH to EWR: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.2% of the time and Wednesday flights 81.0%, against 75.4% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
75.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,631 completed flights
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.86%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
75.2% on time across 3,510 flights
These figures cover 3,717 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on IAH to EWR
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 207 | 78.8% | 61 min | 6.76% | B− |
| United Airlines | 3,510 | 75.2% | 72 min | 1.57% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on IAH to EWR
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Houston to Newark
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 3 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. IAH → EWRHouston to Newark | United Airlines | 74.0% | 75.2% | 1.57% | 5am–8am, Tue | UA 1797 06:00 |
| 2. IAH → LGAHouston to New York | Delta Air Lines | 73.8% | 77.5% | 4.75% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 1417 07:00 |
| 3. IAH → LGAHouston to New York | United Airlines | 70.3% | 71.3% | 1.47% | 5am–8am, Sat | UA 2181 12:00 |
| 4. HOU → LGAHouston to New York | Southwest Airlines | 60.8% | 62.5% | 2.65% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 27 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am723 flights90.2%
- 8am–11am638 flights79.2%
- 11am–2pm849 flights74.6%
- 2pm–5pm753 flights63.5%
- 5pm–8pm396 flights65.8%
- 8pm–5am358 flights76.3%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.2% of the time, against 63.5% for the afternoon window. That is 27 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 849 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter IAH to EWR by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On IAH to EWR, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.2% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 63.5%, a wide gap of 26.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.2%
- 8–11am79.2%
- 11am–2pm74.6%
- 2–5pm63.5%
- 5–8pm65.8%
- 8pm–5am76.3%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 21 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
July is the worst month at 64.6% on time, 21 points below January, the best at 85.1%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. October was the busiest month here, with 336 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 69.5%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 50% of the 63,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%National Airspace System
- 23%Carrier
- 22%Late-arriving aircraft
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
50% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 32,000 minutes out of 63,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 63,435 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.86% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.46%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
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.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 80.2% on time across 3,714 flights, 5 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 5 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 3,717 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in EWR after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 85.1% on time and July 64.6%, a swing of 21 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 3,631 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
IAH to EWR questions
How often is IAH to EWR delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.6% of the 3,717 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is IAH to EWR compared with the rest of the country?
75.4% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 points against it. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on IAH to EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.2% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 63.5%, 27 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on IAH to EWR?
July is the weakest month at 64.6% on time, compared with 85.1% in January. Across the year that is 21 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- EWR to IAH — the return legseparate record
- George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Spirit Airlines on IAH to EWR78.8%
- United Airlines on IAH to EWR75.2%
- IAH to ORD, a related route75.1%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- IAH to DFW, a related route76.4%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record78.8%
- United Airlines on-time record75.2%
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. IAH to EWR and EWR to IAH are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.