Carrier route record
AAIAH→PHL
American Airlines · Houston to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 724
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 39%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on IAH to PHL lands a B−, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 724 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on IAH to PHL from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 701 completed flights
Avg delay
97 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.18%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
78.8%
Every carrier on IAH to PHL, 1,878 flights
These figures cover 724 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on IAH to PHL
American flew 724 of the 1,878 flights on IAH to PHL, about 39% of it. Its 77.6% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 78.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 81.5% to Republic at 63.9%. Three of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 954 | 81.5% | 69 min | 0.94% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 724 | 77.6% | 97 min | 3.18% | B− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 72 | 71.8% | 85 min | 1.39% | C |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 92 | 70.8% | 162 min | 2.17% | C |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 36 | 63.9% | 147 min | 0.00% | D+ |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 21 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am265 flights82.4%
- 8am–11am72 flights90.1%
- 11am–2pm228 flights69.1%
- 2pm–5pm159 flights76.0%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 69.1% on time against 90.1% for 8am–11am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 265 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on IAH to PHL through the year
July is the worst month at 55.7% on time, 40 points below February, the best at 95.9%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 92 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.7% on time and Monday the weakest at 72.2%, a spread of 13 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on IAH to PHL runs when it is late
American on IAH to PHL often beats the schedule: 214 of 701 completed flights, 31%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 157 late arrivals split 56 under half an hour, 29 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 72 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early214 flights30.5%
- Within 15 min330 flights47.1%
- 15–29 min late56 flights8.0%
- 30–59 min late29 flights4.1%
- 1–2 hours late37 flights5.3%
- 2+ hours late35 flights5.0%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 701 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 152 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 17 made it up before arrival. 22 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on IAH to PHL
The latest arrival of the period was on 30 July 2026, 13 hours 50 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 30 July 2026 | 13 hours 50 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 6 June 2026 | 10 hours 49 minutes | Carrier |
| 24 June 2026 | 9 hours 55 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 8 December 2025 | 9 hours 9 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 22 April 2026 | 8 hours 28 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 15,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 15,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 15,204 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 5,449 of the 15,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 3.18%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
10.3% 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 1,325 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 runs 78.1% on time across 724 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 724 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 American on IAH to PHL
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.18% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 701 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- IAH to PHL, every carrier
- American on PHL to IAH, the return leg
- United Airlines on IAH to PHL81.5%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.