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Thanksgiving & Christmas Flight Delays at IAH: George Bush Intercontinental Airport

Over the last four Thanksgiving travel weeks (2022–2025, Tuesday before through Sunday after), 17.0% of flights that left George Bush Intercontinental Airport (Houston, TX) arrived at least 15 minutes late and 0.3% were cancelled. In the rest of November the same airport had 17.5% late and 0.5% cancelled, so Thanksgiving week had 0.5 points fewer late arrivals. The best day was Tue before (11.8% late); the worst was Sun after (26.3% late).

17.0%late arrivals, Thanksgiving week

0.3%cancelled, Thanksgiving week

27.0%late arrivals, Dec 20–31

2.5%cancelled, Dec 20–31

Which day of Thanksgiving week is best at IAH?

Day	Flights (4 yrs)	Late (15+ min)	Cancelled	Avg dep. delay (min)
Tue before	1,366	11.8%	0.2%	9.5
Wed before	1,373	13.9%	0.1%	9.9
Thanksgiving Day	914	14.6%	0.0%	9.5
Fri after	1,208	14.3%	0.1%	10.6
Sat after	1,341	19.9%	0.7%	16.6
Sun after	1,417	26.3%	0.4%	19.6

Pooled over 2022–2025. Thanksgiving 2026 is Thursday, Nov 26, so the window is Tue Nov 24 – Sun Nov 29. Individual days have fewer flights, so small differences are noise.

Year by year at IAH

Year	Thanksgiving week late	Thanksgiving week cancelled	Rest of Nov. late	Dec 20–31 late	Dec 20–31 cancelled
2022	17.5%	0.1%	17.9%	36.4%	5.7%
2023	13.6%	0.0%	13.6%	17.3%	0.1%
2024	13.9%	0.1%	16.5%	33.3%	3.0%
2025	22.6%	0.9%	21.7%	20.3%	0.9%

Single years can be dominated by one storm or airline meltdown; look at the range, not just the average. Dec 20–31, 2022 includes the late-December 2022 winter storm and airline disruptions nationwide.

Christmas week (Dec 20–31) at IAH

Across 2022–2025, 27.0% of flights from IAH arrived 15+ minutes late and 2.5% were cancelled during Dec 20–31, compared with 18.1% late and 0.2% cancelled from Dec 1–19 (+8.9 pts late arrivals).

Airlines at IAH, Thanksgiving week

Airline (flights it operated)	Flights (4 yrs)	Late	Cancelled	Dec 20–31 late
United Airlines	4,328	15.5%	0.1%	25.6%
SkyWest *	876	15.7%	0.1%	30.7%
Spirit	605	25.2%	1.0%	36.5%
Delta Air Lines	498	13.5%	0.2%	21.6%
American Airlines	408	17.8%	0.5%	26.1%
Mesa Airlines *	276	17.5%	0.0%	21.7%
Frontier	219	33.6%	2.3%	38.5%
Southwest	202	11.9%	0.0%	29.7%

* Regional airline that mostly flies under another airline’s brand (for example American Eagle, Delta Connection, United Express), so the ticket you bought may not match the operator. Airlines with fewer than 200 flights in the window are omitted.

Why flights from IAH were late (Thanksgiving week)

Cause category (BTS)	Share of delay minutes
Airline (crew, maintenance, cleaning…)	43.7%
Extreme weather	2.3%
National Aviation System (air traffic, volume)	18.7%
Security	0.0%
Late-arriving aircraft	35.3%

Share of reported delay minutes on flights that arrived 15+ minutes late. “Extreme weather” is only a narrow category; many weather-related delays are counted under National Aviation System or late-arriving aircraft. Categories are assigned by airlines to BTS rules.

Other airports nearby

Source: BTS Airline On-Time Performance data, flights departing IAH operated by airlines that report to BTS. “Late” = arrived 15 or more minutes after schedule (the DOT definition), counted among flights that were not cancelled or diverted. Computed by Holiday Delay Odds; see methodology.