Route profile
BWI→HOU
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Baltimore to Houston, 1,246 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 40% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,387 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
BWI → HOU arrives on time 74.0% of the time; the return trip, HOU → BWI, arrives on time 78.7% of the time, a 4.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
BWI → HOU spends 20.7 minutes on the ground on a 1,246-mile trip: 14.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BWI and 6.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at HOU.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability here swings unusually widely by season, a wider month-to-month spread than 98% of 3,357 comparable routes.
88.2% on time in a typical November, against 59.4% in July.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 3,357 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where BWI to HOU differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BWI to HOU struggles most at 7 PM: 55.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10.5 points behind the 65.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.5 points.
BWI to HOU is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 3 PM: 77.3% arrive on time, 7.2 points ahead of the 70.1% those routes manage at that hour.
Saturday is the day BWI to HOU slips furthest against routes of similar length, 72.4% on time where they average 77.5%, 5.1 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 6.7 points.
In July, BWI to HOU runs 9.4 points below routes of similar length, 59.4% on time to 68.8%. Against all other routes the gap is 10.3 points.
November is kinder to BWI to HOU than to routes of similar length: 88.2% on time against 82.6%, 5.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 4.8 points.
BWI to HOU against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 55.3% | routes of similar length | 65.8% | −10.5 pts | 161 here, 108,078 there |
| Hour: 3 PM departures | 77.3% | routes of similar length | 70.1% | +7.2 pts | 207 here, 104,649 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 72.4% | routes of similar length | 77.5% | −5.1 pts | 602 here, 247,208 there |
| Month: July | 59.4% | routes of similar length | 68.8% | −9.4 pts | 488 here, 202,517 there |
| Month: November | 88.2% | routes of similar length | 82.6% | +5.6 pts | 365 here, 151,622 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 1,246 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why BWI → HOU flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
BWI → HOU cancelled 57 of 4,387 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 77. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 71.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 107 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 57 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
41 cancellations, 71.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
9 cancellations, 15.8% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
7 cancellations, 12.3% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
57 coded cancellations were recorded on BWI → HOU; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
46 min late
against a median of 2 min early
Percentiles over 4,387 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at HOU after arriving from BWI.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 45% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | High risk |
| 90 min | 6.9% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.7% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.30% of the time and diverts 0.30% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,317 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 46 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,387 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BWI → HOU flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.7% of the time, against 53.4% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 36.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 92.3% on time from 579 flights
- 7 AM: 87.4% on time from 447 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 86.1% on time from 285 flights
- 10 AM: 85.2% on time from 355 flights
- 11 AM: 80.9% on time from 154 flights
- 12 PM: 73.9% on time from 215 flights
- 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 68.7% on time from 170 flights
- 3 PM: 77.3% on time from 211 flights
- 4 PM: 64.5% on time from 172 flights
- 5 PM: 67.6% on time from 282 flights
- 6 PM: 59.9% on time from 438 flights
- 7 PM: 55.3% on time from 165 flights
- 8 PM: 58.9% on time from 322 flights
- 9 PM: 55.8% on time from 338 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why BWI → HOU runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BWI → HOU. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 4,387 | 74.0% | 1.30% | -2 min | 7.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 74.8%
- Feb: 85.6%
- Mar: 76.1%
- Apr: 73.3%
- May: 68.2%
- Jun: 68.6%
- Jul: 59.4%
- Aug: 69.3%
- Sep: 78.3%
- Oct: 76.5%
- Nov: 88.2%
- Dec: 77.4%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 28.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (115)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (109)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (104)
- October 2023: 69.0% from 145 flights
- November 2023: 85.8% from 121 flights
- December 2023: 80.3% from 123 flights
- January 2024: too few flights to score (94)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (83)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (117)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (114)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (114)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- August 2024: 70.6% from 128 flights
- September 2024: 79.8% from 124 flights
- October 2024: 84.4% from 128 flights
- November 2024: 96.7% from 121 flights
- December 2024: 77.7% from 132 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (105)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (98)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- May 2025: 69.4% from 123 flights
- June 2025: 65.6% from 124 flights
- July 2025: 70.7% from 128 flights
- August 2025: 71.7% from 128 flights
- September 2025: 84.8% from 125 flights
- October 2025: 76.9% from 130 flights
- November 2025: 82.4% from 130 flights
- December 2025: 74.4% from 133 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (102)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (99)
- March 2026: 72.9% from 121 flights
- April 2026: 74.2% from 120 flights
- May 2026: 69.4% from 124 flights
- June 2026: too few flights to score (113)
- July 2026: 69.5% from 143 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.1% against 78.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,387 BWI → HOU flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed