Airport month record

HOUJAN

William P. Hobby in January 2026

Departures: 4,081
Month: January 2026
National, same month: 79.2%
Carriers: 4

Historical statistics for January 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s January. For today’s conditions at HOU, see live FAA status.

HOU in January earns an A. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 9 points better than the national rate of 79.2%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs roughly 45 minutes. That rests on 4,081 flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.

Set against the rest of the country, HOU's January record is 9 points better than the US average of 79.2%. That gap is worth roughly 88 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.

On time

88.0%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,970 completed departures

Avg delay

44 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

2.55%

Nationally in January: 4.71%

Whole year

76.9%

HOU across all twelve months

These figures cover 4,081 departures from William P. Hobby in January 2026. 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

January next to HOU's other months

Against HOU's own year, January ran 11 points better than the twelve-month rate of 76.9%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations are where January stands out: 2.55% of scheduled departures were called off, 3.0 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, December ran 82.0% on time and February 84.2%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse 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	4,634	82.0%	49 min	0.43%	B+
January 2026 (this page)	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 January

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 13 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–8am487 flights94.8%
8am–11am767 flights91.8%
11am–2pm821 flights90.7%
2pm–5pm666 flights86.3%
5pm–8pm727 flights82.0%
8pm–5am613 flights83.6%

Scale runs 75% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.8% of the time, against 82.0% for the evening window. That is 13 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 821 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 93.5% on time and Monday the weakest at 84.0%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at HOU in January

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 January 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	3,806	88.3%	39 min	2.26%	A
Delta Air Linesthin sample	96	83.7%	82 min	3.12%	B−
PSA Airlinesthin sample	87	88.2%	195 min	12.64%	A−
Envoy Airthin sample	64	83.6%	68 min	4.69%	B−

Route by route

Busiest routes out of HOU in January

Routes from HOU in January 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
HOU to DAL · Dallasthin sample	342	92.4%	45 min	7.60%	A−
HOU to ATL · Atlantathin sample	219	84.0%	56 min	2.74%	B
HOU to DEN · Denverthin sample	196	89.8%	34 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to MSY · New Orleansthin sample	185	88.1%	38 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	168	86.8%	43 min	0.60%	A+
HOU to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	167	85.5%	115 min	8.98%	A−
HOU to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	165	90.9%	35 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to MCO · Orlandothin sample	149	87.9%	27 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to AUS · Austinthin sample	142	87.8%	46 min	2.11%	A
HOU to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	136	90.7%	44 min	5.15%	A−
HOU to MDW · Chicagothin sample	129	84.4%	37 min	0.78%	B+
HOU to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	116	83.6%	58 min	4.31%	B−
HOU to MAF · Midlandthin sample	115	95.5%	29 min	4.35%	A−
HOU to STL · St. Louisthin sample	106	93.3%	31 min	0.94%	A+
HOU to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	103	91.8%	33 min	5.83%	A−
HOU to OKC · Oklahoma Citythin sample	102	82.1%	24 min	6.86%	B−
HOU to SAT · San Antoniothin sample	97	84.5%	43 min	0.00%	B+
HOU to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	93	90.3%	30 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to HRL · Harlingenthin sample	92	85.9%	31 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	89	80.0%	62 min	3.37%	B−
HOU to TPA · Tampathin sample	88	88.6%	29 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to ELP · El Pasothin sample	77	86.8%	42 min	1.30%	A
HOU to SAN · San Diegothin sample	72	84.5%	36 min	0.00%	B+
HOU to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	71	87.3%	32 min	0.00%	A+
HOU to ABQ · Albuquerquethin sample	71	87.3%	48 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held HOU up in January

Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 21,000 reported delay minutes.

Carrier
40%
Late-arriving aircraft
36%
National Airspace System
20%
Extreme weather
3%
Security
0%

36% 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 21,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 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 20,819 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations run at 2.55%, against 4.71% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 2.3% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 7.6% 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 January

For a January trip through HOU: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 88.0% on time with 2.55% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular 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