DAL → HOU Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · DALNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 09:53 UTC

Dallas airport profile →

Destination · HOUNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 09:53 UTC

Houston airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

62/ 100Good

Better than 41% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 12,674 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

76.8%

9,516 of 12,396

Cancellation rate

1.98%

251 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-5 min

Average 7.1 min

Severe delays

6.8%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

56 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

12,674

1 carrier

DAL → HOU arrives on time 76.8% of the time; the return trip, HOU → DAL, arrives on time 81.3% of the time, a 4.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

DAL → HOU spends 19.7 minutes on the ground on a 239-mile trip: 13.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DAL and 5.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at HOU.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

Why DAL → HOU flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

DAL → HOU cancelled 251 of 12,674 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 50. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 59.8% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 84 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather59.8%

Airline32.7%

Air traffic7.6%

Security0.0%

Of 251 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 84

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

150 cancellations, 59.8% of the total.

The airline1 in 155

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

82 cancellations, 32.7% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 667

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

19 cancellations, 7.6% of the total.

Security—

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.

251 coded cancellations were recorded on DAL → HOU; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

43 min late

against a median of 5 min early

Arrived an hour or more late6.8%

Typical delay when late56 min

Cancelled1.98%

Landed somewhere else0.21%

Percentiles over 12,674 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at HOU after arriving from DAL.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, DAL → HOU arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	39%	Likely to miss
45 min	23%	High risk
60 min	14%	Some risk
90 min	6.7%	Some risk
120 min	3.6%	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 1.98% of the time and diverts 0.21% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 12,396 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 43 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 12,674 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

DAL → HOU flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.7% of the time, against 62.8% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 27.9 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (DAL).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 10.9 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 3.4 points.

On-time arrival rate for DAL to HOU by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

50–59
60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures after 9 PM (882 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for DAL to HOU. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	90.8% on time157 flights	97.3% on time153 flights	96.6% on time151 flights	95.4% on time156 flights	93.4% on time158 flights	92.2% on time153 flights	95.5% on time156 flights
7 AM–8 AM	92.8% on time157 flights	94.1% on time155 flights	91.0% on time156 flights	89.6% on time157 flights	88.2% on time155 flights	97 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score
8 AM–9 AM	85.1% on time149 flights	89.1% on time123 flights	88.9% on time120 flights	84.5% on time149 flights	88.1% on time153 flights	83.4% on time146 flights	86.1% on time145 flights
9 AM–10 AM	30 flights, too few to score	77 flights, too few to score	81 flights, too few to score	28 flights, too few to score	23 flights, too few to score	69 flights, too few to score	86 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	87.0% on time144 flights	91.7% on time138 flights	83.5% on time137 flights	85.9% on time145 flights	83.0% on time145 flights	81 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score
11 AM–12 PM	85.2% on time155 flights	88.8% on time148 flights	87.6% on time150 flights	81.6% on time156 flights	75.8% on time155 flights	77 flights, too few to score	107 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	22 flights, too few to score	48 flights, too few to score	48 flights, too few to score	20 flights, too few to score	18 flights, too few to score	58 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	73.8% on time139 flights	113 flights, too few to score	112 flights, too few to score	68.8% on time143 flights	71.9% on time143 flights	95 flights, too few to score	70.8% on time121 flights
2 PM–3 PM	73.3% on time140 flights	78.3% on time161 flights	76.4% on time159 flights	69.2% on time136 flights	68.4% on time138 flights	88 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	37 flights, too few to score	44 flights, too few to score	47 flights, too few to score	42 flights, too few to score	36 flights, too few to score	103 flights, too few to score	40 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	73.5% on time152 flights	75.8% on time157 flights	70.8% on time157 flights	73.5% on time150 flights	63.5% on time151 flights	110 flights, too few to score	71.3% on time127 flights
5 PM–6 PM	67.5% on time130 flights	65.0% on time140 flights	65.5% on time140 flights	51.2% on time126 flights	62.2% on time130 flights	57 flights, too few to score	75 flights, too few to score
6 PM–7 PM	115 flights, too few to score	111 flights, too few to score	110 flights, too few to score	109 flights, too few to score	111 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	55.2% on time128 flights
7 PM–8 PM	81 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score	80 flights, too few to score	78 flights, too few to score	67 flights, too few to score	54.3% on time121 flights
8 PM–9 PM	68.9% on time137 flights	107 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score	62.1% on time135 flights	57.2% on time138 flights	77 flights, too few to score	53.3% on time125 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM90.7%

9 AM–12 PM85.4%

12–3 PM74.6%

3–6 PM68.6%

6–9 PM64.7%

9 PM–5 AM62.8%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why DAL → HOU runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft45.9%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Air traffic control25.9%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

The airline23.8%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Weather4.3%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security<0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DAL → HOU. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DAL → HOU, at 45.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.7% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 62.8%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

The harder-hit end is the one the flight leaves from, where a cancellation keeps it from departing at all. Bad weather cancels 9.8 times the normal rate at DAL against 3.4 times at HOU. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: DAL 7.2% against 0.7%, HOU 2.9% against 0.8%. Flights that did leave DAL in bad weather arrived on time 60.8% of the time, against 76.8% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from DAL and HOU in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	DAL	HOU
Cancelled in bad weather	7.2%	2.9%
Cancelled in normal hours	0.7%	0.8%
Arrived on time, bad weather	60.8%	69.5%
Arrived on time, normal hours	76.8%	79.6%
Departures in bad weather	15,025	13,363

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from DAL and HOU, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad.

Weather source and limits. In full: DAL, HOU, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
Southwest Airlines	12,674	76.8%	1.98%	-5 min	6.8%

Other ways to fly Dallas–Fort Worth to Houston

Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.

Other ways to fly Dallas–Fort Worth to Houston
Route	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Score
DFW→IAH Dallas–Fort Worth to Houston	16,933	71.3%	2.80%	-2 min	40
DAL→HOU this route Dallas to Houston	12,674	76.8%	1.98%	-5 min	62

DAL → HOU is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 76.8% on time, against 71.3% for DFW → IAH.

Flying to HOU from the Dallas–Fort Worth area? Compare DAL, DFW for HOU, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
WN1628 Southwest Airlines	6:00 AM	887	94.3%
WN19 Southwest Airlines	11:30 AM	779	82.3%
WN7 Southwest Airlines	8:30 AM	741	86.4%
WN39 Southwest Airlines	4:00 PM	738	72.3%
WN1 Southwest Airlines	7:00 AM	722	89.9%

WN1628 (6:00 AM) arrived on time 94.3% of the time, 22.0 points more often than WN39 (4:00 PM) at 72.3%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon77.8%

Tue82.0%

Wed78.8%

Thu73.9%

Fri73.6%

Sat79.4%

Sun72.1%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.9 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

May is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 21.9 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 74.9% against 77.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.4 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 12,674 DAL → 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

DAL airport HOU airport Return direction HOU → DAL

DAL→HOU

Right now

Route reliability

Why DAL → HOU flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why DAL → HOU runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Airlines on this route

Other ways to fly Dallas–Fort Worth to Houston

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology