Houston, TX · departure reliability
HOU
William P. Hobby
- Departures
- 53,580
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 5
- US rank
- #37 by volume
Houston
William P. Hobby lands a B+, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average. That rests on 53,580 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,387 at 84.6% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 84.6% on time across 1,387 flights.
Key figures
On time
76.5%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
53 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.86%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
84.6% on time here
These figures cover 54,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of HOU
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 84.6% of the time; SkyWest Airlines manages 73.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 449 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 49,994 | 76.2% | 50 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,387 | 84.6% | 96 min | 2.09% | B |
| Envoy Air | 804 | 83.4% | 68 min | 2.74% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 719 | 77.9% | 106 min | 5.01% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 449 | 73.2% | 135 min | 4.45% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 5.0% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of HOU
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from HOU, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 76.5%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOU to DAL · Dallas | 4,039 | 81.6% | 56 min | 2.10% | B |
| HOU to ATL · Atlanta | 2,850 | 79.2% | 66 min | 1.33% | B |
| HOU to DEN · Denver | 2,369 | 77.4% | 53 min | 0.34% | B+ |
| HOU to MSY · New Orleans | 2,289 | 82.6% | 51 min | 0.22% | B+ |
| HOU to PHX · Phoenix | 2,081 | 76.8% | 50 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| HOU to MCO · Orlando | 2,057 | 77.0% | 51 min | 0.78% | B+ |
| HOU to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,018 | 79.8% | 51 min | 0.35% | B+ |
| HOU to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,972 | 79.1% | 102 min | 3.96% | B− |
| HOU to MDW · Chicago | 1,843 | 70.6% | 49 min | 0.98% | C+ |
| HOU to BNA · Nashville | 1,835 | 77.2% | 49 min | 0.65% | B+ |
| HOU to STL · St. Louis | 1,567 | 79.8% | 50 min | 0.45% | B+ |
| HOU to BWI · Baltimore | 1,482 | 74.9% | 47 min | 1.35% | C |
| HOU to MAF · Midland | 1,363 | 82.3% | 53 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| HOU to LGA · New York | 1,358 | 62.5% | 64 min | 2.65% | D |
| HOU to AUS · Austin | 1,315 | 74.4% | 49 min | 0.38% | C+ |
| HOU to SAT · San Antonio | 1,282 | 77.1% | 51 min | 0.08% | B+ |
| HOU to OKC · Oklahoma City | 1,216 | 75.7% | 48 min | 0.90% | B+ |
| HOU to LAX · Los Angeles | 1,188 | 73.6% | 45 min | 0.17% | C+ |
| HOU to HRL · Harlingen | 1,165 | 75.9% | 44 min | 0.17% | B+ |
| HOU to DCA · Washington | 1,052 | 68.3% | 54 min | 1.81% | C |
| HOU to ELP · El Paso | 1,041 | 77.0% | 45 min | 0.29% | B+ |
| HOU to TPA · Tampa | 1,010 | 73.4% | 51 min | 0.40% | C+ |
| HOU to MCI · Kansas City | 1,003 | 76.9% | 50 min | 0.40% | B+ |
| HOU to SAN · San Diego | 985 | 73.9% | 45 min | 0.71% | C+ |
| HOU to CRP · Corpus Christi | 985 | 77.5% | 50 min | 0.10% | B+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave HOU
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 27 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am6,322 flights92.6%
- 8am–11am11,562 flights88.8%
- 11am–2pm8,560 flights79.8%
- 2pm–5pm9,550 flights67.6%
- 5pm–8pm8,671 flights66.3%
- 8pm–5am8,915 flights65.7%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.6% of the time, against 65.7% for the overnight 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 11,562 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter HOU departures 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 departures from Houston (HOU), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.6% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 65.7%, a wide gap of 26.9 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.6%
- 8–11am88.8%
- 11am–2pm79.8%
- 2–5pm67.6%
- 5–8pm66.3%
- 8pm–5am65.7%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When HOU runs late
HOU's year swings by 24 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.
June is the worst month at 63.6% on time, 24 points below January, the best at 88.0%. 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 4,887 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.8%, a spread of 8 points.
HOU month by month
Delay causes
Why HOU gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 654,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 34%Carrier
- 17%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
45% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 654,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 to one. The split is drawn from 653,502 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 92.6% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.86%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
6.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last roughly 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
53,580 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
What to do with this
Flying out of HOU
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 88.0% on time and June 63.6%, a swing of 24 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 52,981 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
HOU delay questions
How often is Houston (HOU) 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 23.5% of the 53,580 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Houston (HOU)?
Delta Air Lines leads at 84.6% on time across 1,387 flights. SkyWest Airlines is at the other end on 73.2%, a gap of 11 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on Houston (HOU)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.6% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 65.7%, 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 June delays on Houston (HOU)?
June is the weakest month at 63.6% on time, compared with 88.0% in January. Across the year that is 24 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
- HOU to DAL — Dallas81.6%
- HOU to ATL — Atlanta79.2%
- HOU to DEN — Denver77.4%
- HOU to MSY — New Orleans82.6%
- HOU to PHX — Phoenix76.8%
- HOU to MCO — Orlando77.0%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record76.2%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record84.6%
- Envoy Air on-time record83.4%
- PSA Airlines on-time record77.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Dallas and Houston airports, plus Austin and San Antonio
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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.