IAH Is Reportedly More Prone to Flight Cancellations Than Other Airports

Inside IAH.
A new report from researchers at travel insurance marketplace InsureMyTrip.com claims that Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport is more prone to flight cancellations than almost any other American airport. In fact, IAH ranked second only to New York's LaGuardia when it came to the percentage of flights canceled in 2017—that would be 2.73 percent or 3,529 flights out of 129,271 flights. Bad weather is cited as the main reason for delays and canceled flights.
And with bad weather in mind, Bill Begley, the public information officer at the Houston Airport System, tells us that the report fails to give a full scope of why IAH had so many closures — approximately 2,604 cancellations came between August 26 and September 5, 2017, when the airport was essentially shut down because of Hurricane Harvey. That would mean that only 925 flights were cancelled out of nearly 130,000 scheduled for Bush Airport in 2017 under, you know, non-hurricane conditions.
Here's how the cancellation-prone airports stack up, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Rank |
Airport |
Total flights |
Canceled |
Percentage |
1 |
New York, NY: LaGuardia |
93,326 |
3018 |
3.23 |
2 |
Houston, TX: George Bush Intercontinental/Houston |
129,271 |
3529 |
2.73 |
3 |
Fort Lauderdale, FL: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International |
90,078 |
2429 |
2.7 |
4 |
Newark, NJ: Newark Liberty International |
115,968 |
2982 |
2.57 |
5 |
New York, NY: John F. Kennedy International |
94,454 |
2076 |
2.2 |
6 |
Boston, MA: Logan International |
125,456 |
2665 |
2.12 |
7 |
Washington, DC: Ronald Reagan Washington National |
74,408 |
1488 |
2 |
8 |
Orlando, FL: Orlando International |
131,998 |
2606 |
1.97 |
9 |
San Francisco, CA: San Francisco International |
174,631 |
3299 |
1.89 |
10 |
Baltimore, MD: Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall |
174,631 |
3299 |
Here's a little bit of good news though: The report also reveals that delays are far more common than cancellations, so you'll have plenty of time to chill out in that new United hub, eating wood fired pizza, and shopping for Kiehl's—or, more likely, tweeting your disdain for all humanity while awaiting your flight.