Flight profile · Southwest Airlines
WN7
Dallas (DAL) to Houston (HOU) · scheduled 8:30 AM – 9:40 AM
How WN7 performs
741 operations, July 2023 – July 2026.
WN7 arrived on time 86.4% of the time, against 76.8% for all DAL → HOU flights, so this departure is 9.6 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against Southwest Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 9.6 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 741 operations, July 2023 – July 2026 · If WN7 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
What stands out
How WN7 compares to other flight numbers, not just to itself.
This flight runs unusually far ahead of the carrier's own average on this route, better than 91% of 11,589 comparable flight numbers.
86.4% on time for this specific departure, against 76.8% for the same carrier's other flights on this route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · The one thing about this specific departure that ranks most extreme against every other published flight number, out of everything FlyerIntel checks — shown only when something clears a real statistical bar, not for every flight.
Where WN7 is right now
A live reading, only if you ask for it. It is not part of the reliability record above.
Ask for the position of WN7 right now, if receivers on the ground are hearing it. Nothing is requested until you press the button.
Against the rest of the route
| Flight or route | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WN7 | 86.4% | 1.21% | -7 min | 3.8% | 741 |
| Southwest Airlines on DAL → HOU | 76.8% | 1.98% | -5 min | 6.8% | 12,674 |
| All DAL → HOU flights | 76.8% | 1.98% | -5 min | 6.8% | 12,674 |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
Why WN7 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for WN7 on DAL → HOU. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies WN7 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
The aircraft flying WN7 came in 15 or more minutes late on 8% of the departures where its previous flight is known. There are not enough departures in both groups to say how the flight left after a late one and after an on-time one.
Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into DAL just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 687 of 732 departures in all. A departure is left out when that flight is unknown, was cancelled or diverted, or the aircraft had sat for more than 12 hours. A flight the airline cancelled never left and is not in the count, and one flown by a substitute aircraft is matched to the aircraft that flew it, not to the one first planned.
Against the network at the same turn length
| Share of departures | Inbound landed 15+ late |
|---|---|
| WN7 | 8% |
| Network, same turn | 18% |
The schedule leaves a normal turn: enough time to clean and board if the aircraft is on time, little to spare if it is not.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 45 to 59 minutes. How often WN7’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s. There are not enough departures in both groups to compare how it left.
More: Which Flight Numbers Pay for a Late Aircraft lists the flight numbers that pass a late aircraft on.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves DAL late, does that still matter by the time it reaches HOU?
WN7 pushes back an average of 4.8 minutes late and reaches the gate at HOU an average of 0.4 minutes late. The 4.4 minutes between those two figures are slack the published schedule already carries, which is why a late pushback on this flight does not reliably become a late arrival. Its 14.0 minutes on the taxiways at DAL is about what any departure from the airport in that hour spends.
On arrival at HOU, WN7 spends 5.7 min taxiing from touchdown to the gate — ground time a connecting passenger sits through before they can even leave the aircraft, on top of however late the flight itself ran. That is about what any arrival at HOU spends on the ground before reaching the gate.
Departure delay is averaged over every pushback and arrival delay over every completed arrival, so the two counts differ by the flights that never reached HOU. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 15,040 departures from DAL scheduled in the clock hour WN7 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at HOU (172,208 flights), not just WN7’s own. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
The hour it leaves DAL
Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. WN7 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 15,040 departures from DAL are scheduled in the 8 AM–9 AM hour over the period, against 224,047 across the whole day.
WN7 is scheduled out of DAL at 8:30 AM, in the 8 AM–9 AM bank. Departures from DAL in that hour arrive on time 89.6% of the time against 76.0% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 13.7 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
The two airport figures cover every departure from DAL to every destination, so they describe the slot rather than this journey — the like-for-like comparison against the route is above. Hours are scheduled local, and a number whose schedule moved between banks inside the period has no single hour and is not described here at all. Why the hour matters.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
Other routes WN7 has flown
A flight number is a slot in a schedule, and carriers reassign it. These are the other city pairs this number served in the analysis period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCO→DAL Orlando to Dallas | June 5, 2025 – July 31, 2026 | 68 | — |
| HOU→CRP Houston to Corpus Christi | July 1, 2023 – July 29, 2026 | 210 | 87.6% |
| MDW→DAL Chicago to Dallas | October 5, 2024 – June 1, 2026 | 29 | — |
| ATL→DAL Atlanta to Dallas | October 7, 2023 – April 6, 2026 | 20 | — |
| TPA→DAL Tampa to Dallas | January 9, 2024 – April 1, 2026 | 26 | — |
| HOU→BNA Houston to Nashville | July 5, 2024 – November 27, 2025 | 2 | — |
| MAF→DAL Midland to Dallas | November 27, 2025 | 1 | — |
| STL→DAL St. Louis to Dallas | September 7, 2023 – October 1, 2025 | 34 | — |
| HOU→BUR Houston to Burbank | August 5, 2025 – October 1, 2025 | 18 | — |
| LIT→DAL Little Rock to Dallas | November 11, 2023 – September 29, 2025 | 82 | — |
| HOU→STL Houston to St. Louis | August 10, 2025 – September 28, 2025 | 7 | — |
| HOU→BHM Houston to Birmingham | June 8, 2025 – August 3, 2025 | 9 | — |
| ABQ→DAL Albuquerque to Dallas | April 10, 2025 – June 2, 2025 | 24 | — |
| HOU→MDW Houston to Chicago | May 25, 2025 | 1 | — |
| MCI→DAL Kansas City to Dallas | October 6–27, 2024 | 4 | — |
| BNA→DAL Nashville to Dallas | October 5, 2023 – September 28, 2024 | 26 | — |
| ELP→DAL El Paso to Dallas | June 6, 2024 – August 4, 2024 | 33 | — |
| AMA→DAL Amarillo to Dallas | April 11, 2024 – June 3, 2024 | 24 | — |
| EUG→LAS Eugene to Las Vegas | November 11, 2023 – January 6, 2024 | 6 | — |
| LAS→LIT Las Vegas to Little Rock | November 11, 2023 – January 6, 2024 | 6 | — |
| HOU→BWI Houston to Baltimore | October 7, 2023 – November 4, 2023 | 5 | — |
| HOU→DEN Houston to Denver | July 11, 2023 – November 1, 2023 | 45 | — |
| HOU→MSY Houston to New Orleans | October 8–29, 2023 | 4 | — |
| TPA→BNA Tampa to Nashville | October 8–29, 2023 | 4 | — |
| HOU→SAV Houston to Savannah | August 15, 2023 – September 4, 2023 | 17 | — |
| IND→DAL Indianapolis to Dallas | August 15, 2023 – September 4, 2023 | 17 | — |
| DEN→DAL Denver to Dallas | July 1, 2023 – September 2, 2023 | 10 | — |
| HOU→HRL Houston to Harlingen | July 2–9, 2023 | 2 | — |
| MEM→DAL Memphis to Dallas | July 2–9, 2023 | 2 | — |
Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route WN7 currently operates. Blending them would produce an average of two different flights.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
24 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 741 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Other flights on this route
Same airports, same journey, different odds of arriving on time.
| Flight | Airline | On time | Median arrival | Operations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WN1628 | Southwest Airlines | 94.3% | 10 min early | 887 |
| WN1 | Southwest Airlines | 89.9% | 7 min early | 722 |
| WN7 this flight | Southwest Airlines | 86.4% | 7 min early | 741 |
| WN15 | Southwest Airlines | 85.3% | 8 min early | 624 |
| WN19 | Southwest Airlines | 82.3% | 7 min early | 779 |
| WN27 | Southwest Airlines | 77.1% | 3 min early | 731 |
| WN39 | Southwest Airlines | 72.3% | 4 min early | 738 |
| WN33 | Southwest Airlines | 72.1% | 1 min early | 717 |
Every departure listed carries at least 600 operations, so the comparison is between figures that mean something. WN7 is placed in the same ordering rather than left out of it; the rows around it are the most punctual departures on the route, not all of them, so this is a comparison and not a rank. Schedules change; confirm the departure still operates before booking around this.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 741 records of WN7 operating DAL → HOU, published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after schedule. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and reported separately. Flight numbers are resolved as carrier plus number plus route, because the same number serves different routes over time.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: Most and Least Reliable Flight Numbers · The Delay You Inherit · Making Up Time in the Air
Analysis last recomputed