Airport month record

HOUDEC

William P. Hobby in December 2025

Departures: 4,634
Month: December 2025
National, same month: 73.2%
Carriers: 5

Historical statistics for December 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s December. For today’s conditions at HOU, see live FAA status.

HOU in December lands a B+, 9 points better than the national rate of 73.2%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 4,634 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.

Set against the rest of the country, HOU's December record is 9 points better than the US average of 73.2%. That gap is worth roughly 88 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.

On time

82.0%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,606 completed departures

Avg delay

49 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.43%

Nationally in December: 1.55%

Whole year

76.9%

HOU across all twelve months

These figures cover 4,634 departures from William P. Hobby in December 2025. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.

Against the year

December next to HOU's other months

Against HOU's own year, December ran 5 points better than the twelve-month rate of 76.9%, which makes it number four of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for HOU in December, at 0.43% against 0.84% across the year. Either side of it, November ran 80.1% on time and January 88.0%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.

HOU month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	5,093	70.7%	59 min	0.79%	C+
August 2025	4,640	78.2%	56 min	0.37%	B+
September 2025	4,452	86.1%	45 min	0.11%	A+
October 2025	4,887	78.0%	50 min	0.23%	B+
November 2025	4,552	80.1%	58 min	2.20%	B
December 2025 (this page)	4,634	82.0%	49 min	0.43%	B+
January 2026	4,081	88.0%	44 min	2.55%	A
February 2026	3,832	84.2%	48 min	0.68%	B+
March 2026	4,578	67.5%	54 min	1.42%	C
April 2026	4,418	75.8%	50 min	0.14%	B+
May 2026	4,533	71.9%	51 min	0.79%	C+
June 2026	4,514	63.6%	56 min	0.62%	D+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave HOU in December

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am617 flights93.9%
8am–11am896 flights91.7%
11am–2pm846 flights83.6%
2pm–5pm738 flights80.5%
5pm–8pm780 flights73.3%
8pm–5am757 flights69.3%

Scale runs 60% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 93.9% of the time, against 69.3% for the overnight window. That is 25 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 896 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.3% on time and Saturday the weakest at 77.3%. 9 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at HOU in December

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.

Carriers at HOU in December 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	4,315	81.9%	46 min	0.39%	B+
Delta Air Linesthin sample	121	87.2%	108 min	2.48%	A
PSA Airlinesthin sample	88	72.7%	97 min	0.00%	C+
Envoy Airthin sample	58	86.2%	35 min	0.00%	A+
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	31	93.5%	63 min	0.00%	A+

Route by route

Busiest routes out of HOU in December

Routes from HOU in December 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
HOU to DAL · Dallasthin sample	315	88.8%	33 min	0.63%	A+
HOU to ATL · Atlantathin sample	254	82.0%	63 min	1.18%	B
HOU to DEN · Denverthin sample	234	81.0%	60 min	0.43%	B+
HOU to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	197	86.2%	47 min	0.51%	A+
HOU to MSY · New Orleansthin sample	192	85.3%	31 min	0.52%	A+
HOU to MCO · Orlandothin sample	190	81.1%	55 min	0.00%	B+
HOU to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	183	90.2%	60 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	177	80.8%	80 min	0.00%	B+
HOU to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	162	87.7%	31 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to MDW · Chicagothin sample	144	77.1%	36 min	0.00%	B+
HOU to STL · St. Louisthin sample	138	86.2%	63 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	131	78.3%	57 min	1.53%	B
HOU to MAF · Midlandthin sample	128	88.3%	36 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to SAT · San Antoniothin sample	122	85.2%	40 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	120	65.5%	62 min	2.50%	C
HOU to OKC · Oklahoma Citythin sample	115	87.0%	38 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	108	81.3%	53 min	0.93%	B+
HOU to HRL · Harlingenthin sample	106	79.0%	47 min	0.94%	B+
HOU to ELP · El Pasothin sample	96	89.6%	28 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to AUS · Austinthin sample	95	78.9%	44 min	0.00%	B+
HOU to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	91	78.0%	42 min	0.00%	B+
HOU to SAN · San Diegothin sample	91	75.8%	41 min	0.00%	B+
HOU to TPA · Tampathin sample	83	81.5%	82 min	1.20%	B
HOU to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	80	60.0%	50 min	0.00%	D+
HOU to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample	79	78.2%	39 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held HOU up in December

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 50% of the 41,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

Late-arriving aircraft
50%
Carrier
33%
National Airspace System
16%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%

50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 41,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 50 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 40,526 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.43%, below the national 1.55% 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.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.9% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 10.0% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.

What to do with this

Flying from HOU in December

For a December trip through HOU: expect 82.0% on time and 0.43% cancelled, going by December 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures