Airport month record
HOUMAR
William P. Hobby in March 2026
- Departures
- 4,578
- Month
- March 2026
- National, same month
- 75.7%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for March 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s March. For today’s conditions at HOU, see live FAA status.
HOU in March draws a C. About one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, and the typical late arrival is about 55 minutes behind schedule. Build slack into anything you connect to. That rests on 4,578 flights, with a median arrival 2 minutes late.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 75.7%, so hou in march runs 8 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 82 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
67.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,496 completed departures
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.42%
Nationally in March: 2.90%
Whole year
76.9%
HOU across all twelve months
These figures cover 4,578 departures from William P. Hobby in March 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
March next to HOU's other months
Against HOU's own year, March ran 9 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 76.9%, which makes it number eleven of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where March stands out: 1.42% of scheduled departures were called off, 1.7 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, February ran 84.2% on time and April 75.8%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.
| 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 | 4,081 | 88.0% | 44 min | 2.55% | A |
| February 2026 | 3,832 | 84.2% | 48 min | 0.68% | B+ |
| March 2026 (this page) | 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 March
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 38 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–8am459 flights91.0%
- 8am–11am1,082 flights82.6%
- 11am–2pm618 flights72.8%
- 2pm–5pm906 flights53.1%
- 5pm–8pm551 flights55.8%
- 8pm–5am962 flights56.0%
Scale runs 45% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.0% of the time, against 53.1% for the afternoon window. That is 38 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 1,082 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 74.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 59.9%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at HOU in March
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.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 4,304 | 66.7% | 53 min | 1.07% | C |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 120 | 81.4% | 70 min | 5.00% | B− |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 114 | 76.2% | 95 min | 10.53% | B− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 31 | 90.0% | 29 min | 3.23% | A− |
Route by route
Busiest routes out of HOU in March
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOU to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 364 | 75.9% | 61 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| HOU to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 239 | 67.4% | 57 min | 3.35% | C− |
| HOU to MSY · New Orleansthin sample | 200 | 71.1% | 46 min | 1.50% | C |
| HOU to DEN · Denverthin sample | 197 | 72.8% | 60 min | 0.51% | C+ |
| HOU to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 196 | 82.1% | 49 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| HOU to MCO · Orlandothin sample | 183 | 59.9% | 48 min | 3.28% | D− |
| HOU to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 174 | 79.9% | 52 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| HOU to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 165 | 71.2% | 48 min | 1.21% | C |
| HOU to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 161 | 60.4% | 52 min | 1.24% | D |
| HOU to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 145 | 79.4% | 88 min | 8.97% | B− |
| HOU to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 143 | 67.8% | 58 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| HOU to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 122 | 56.7% | 50 min | 1.64% | D |
| HOU to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 116 | 38.7% | 71 min | 6.90% | F− |
| HOU to MAF · Midlandthin sample | 116 | 72.4% | 50 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| HOU to AUS · Austinthin sample | 112 | 67.9% | 50 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| HOU to SAT · San Antoniothin sample | 101 | 64.4% | 50 min | 0.00% | D+ |
| HOU to OKC · Oklahoma Citythin sample | 95 | 74.5% | 63 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| HOU to TPA · Tampathin sample | 93 | 52.7% | 52 min | 2.15% | F |
| HOU to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 93 | 58.0% | 50 min | 3.23% | D− |
| HOU to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample | 92 | 61.5% | 58 min | 1.09% | D |
| HOU to ELP · El Pasothin sample | 91 | 72.2% | 59 min | 1.10% | C |
| HOU to HRL · Harlingenthin sample | 90 | 71.1% | 48 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| HOU to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 89 | 82.0% | 68 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| HOU to CRP · Corpus Christithin sample | 87 | 74.7% | 62 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| HOU to ABQ · Albuquerquethin sample | 84 | 68.7% | 57 min | 1.19% | C |
Delay causes
What held HOU up in March
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 79,000 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.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 2%Security
48% 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 79,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 24 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 79,291 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.42% against a national 2.90%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.37%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 9.5% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
What to do with this
Flying from HOU in March
For a March trip through HOU: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 91.0% on time, and with 9.7% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in January would.
Related
Where to go next
- William P. Hobby (HOU), the whole year
- HOU in July70.7%
- HOU in August78.2%
- HOU in September86.1%
- HOU in October78.0%
- HOU in November80.1%
- HOU in December82.0%
- HOU in January88.0%
- HOU in February84.2%
- HOU in April75.8%
- HOU in May71.9%
- HOU in June63.6%
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.