Route reliability record
DCA→HOU
Washington to Houston
- Flights
- 1,053
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,218 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 1,053 DCA to HOU flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes early.
Best time to fly DCA to HOU: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 93.0% of the time and Wednesday flights 81.9%, against 75.4% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
75.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,030 completed flights
Avg delay
60 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.18%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Southwest
75.4% on time across 1,053 flights
These figures cover 1,053 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 4 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to HOU
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 | 1,053 | 75.4% | 60 min | 2.18% | B |
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Washington to Houston
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. IAD → IAHWashington to Houston | United Airlines | 84.3% | 84.7% | 0.48% | 5am–8am, Tue | UA 1524 08:30 |
| 2. BWI → IAHBaltimore to Houston | United Airlines | 83.0% | 84.0% | 1.20% | 5am–8am, Thu | — |
| 3. DCA → IAHWashington to Houston | United Airlines | 82.8% | 83.5% | 0.80% | 5am–8am, Wed | UA 1450 06:00 |
| 4. BWI → HOUBaltimore to Houston | Southwest Airlines | 74.6% | 75.7% | 1.43% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 5. DCA → HOUWashington to Houston | Southwest Airlines | 73.8% | 75.4% | 2.18% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 31 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am364 flights93.0%
- 8am–11am1 flights—
- 11am–2pm288 flights69.2%
- 2pm–5pm59 flights74.1%
- 5pm–8pm341 flights61.8%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.8% on time, against 93.0% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 364 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DCA to HOU 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 DCA to HOU, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.0% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 61.8%, a wide gap of 31.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.0%
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm69.2%
- 2–5pm74.1%
- 5–8pm61.8%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 36 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.
July is the worst month at 56.5% on time, 36 points below February, the best at 92.3%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 93 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 66.4%, a spread of 16 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 52% of the 15,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
52% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 15,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 17 to one. The split is drawn from 15,163 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 93.0% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.18% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.8% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,218 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 68.3% on time across 1,052 flights, 7 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 7 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 1,053 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in HOU after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 1,053 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 75.4% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 1,030 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DCA to HOU questions
How often is DCA to 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 24.6% of the 1,053 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
How reliable is DCA to HOU compared with the rest of the country?
75.4% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 points against it. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on DCA to HOU?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.0% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 61.8%, 31 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 July delays on DCA to HOU?
July is the weakest month at 56.5% on time, compared with 92.3% in February. Across the year that is 36 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 DCA — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- William P. Hobby (HOU) delay statistics
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- DAL to HOU, a related route74.8%
- DCA to ORD, a related route73.8%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record75.4%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. DCA to HOU and HOU to DCA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.