OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Chicago to Houston

925 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on ORD–IAH arrive on time 74% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate74%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay55 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled1.3%of scheduled flights

based on 5,563 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • United Airlinesbest
    On-time78%
    Medianon time
    p9045 min
    Cancel0.7%
    Flights3,973
  • Frontier Airlines
    On-time74%
    Medianon time
    p9040 min
    Cancel0.0%
    Flights31
  • Envoy Air
    On-time72%
    Medianon time
    p9055 min
    Cancel1.7%
    Flights302
  • Republic Airways
    On-time71%
    Medianon time
    p9065 min
    Cancel2.5%
    Flights242
  • American Airlines
    On-time59%
    Medianon time
    p90100 min
    Cancel2.6%
    Flights770
  • Spirit Airlines
    On-time58%
    Medianon time
    p90110 min
    Cancel4.5%
    Flights245

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline27%
  • Weather7%
  • Air traffic (NAS)26%
  • Late aircraft40%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline11%
  • Weather79%
  • Air traffic (NAS)10%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 71 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly ORD → IAH

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 85% on time.

  • Mornings85% on time · p90 25 min · 5,275 flights
  • Middays81% on time · p90 35 min · 3,352 flights
  • Evenings70% on time · p90 60 min · 2,174 flights
  • Afternoons70% on time · p90 65 min · 3,032 flights
  • Overnights64% on time · p90 80 min · 2,492 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 73% to 79% on time.

  • Tuesdays79% on time · p90 40 min · 2,213 flights
  • Wednesdays79% on time · p90 40 min · 2,224 flights
  • Saturdays77% on time · p90 40 min · 2,192 flights
  • Mondays75% on time · p90 50 min · 2,397 flights
  • Thursdays75% on time · p90 45 min · 2,414 flights
  • Sundays75% on time · p90 55 min · 2,456 flights
  • Fridays73% on time · p90 55 min · 2,430 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Delay predictorfor this route→ORD airportChicago→IAH airportHouston→United Airlinesairline profile→American Airlinesairline profile→Envoy Airairline profile→Seasonal delay patternsguide→

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.