Route profile
HOU→ATL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Atlanta, 696 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 61% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,619 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
HOU → ATL arrives on time 81.7% of the time; the return trip, ATL → HOU, arrives on time 80.7% of the time.
HOU → ATL spends 22.0 minutes on the ground on a 696-mile trip: 13.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HOU and 9.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at ATL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where HOU to ATL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
HOU to ATL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 76.6% arrive on time, 9.8 points ahead of the 66.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.1 points.
HOU to ATL holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 82.3% on time to their 76.4%, a 5.9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5.5 points.
September is kinder to HOU to ATL than to routes of similar length: 89.4% on time against 82.3%, 7.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on HOU to ATL than on its routes of similar length: 84.4% on time here, 80.4% there, 4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 2.9 points.
HOU to ATL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 76.6% | routes of similar length | 66.8% | +9.8 pts | 809 here, 142,078 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 82.3% | routes of similar length | 76.4% | +5.9 pts | 1,406 here, 322,531 there |
| Month: September | 89.4% | routes of similar length | 82.3% | +7.1 pts | 804 here, 174,635 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 84.4% | routes of similar length | 80.4% | +4.0 pts | 4,546 here, 371,122 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 696 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 HOU → ATL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
HOU → ATL cancelled 111 of 9,619 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 87. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 47.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 181 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 111 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.
53 cancellations, 47.7% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
52 cancellations, 46.8% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
6 cancellations, 5.4% 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.
111 coded cancellations were recorded on HOU → ATL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
37 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 9,619 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ATL after arriving from HOU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.8% | 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 1.15% of the time and diverts 0.19% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,490 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 37 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,619 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
HOU → ATL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.0% of the time, against 70.9% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 21.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 91.8% on time from 187 flights
- 6 AM: 91.9% on time from 1,497 flights
- 7 AM: 93.7% on time from 371 flights
- 8 AM: 90.3% on time from 239 flights
- 9 AM: 85.3% on time from 178 flights
- 10 AM: 86.6% on time from 1,383 flights
- 11 AM: 84.9% on time from 356 flights
- 12 PM: 78.6% on time from 359 flights
- 1 PM: 84.4% on time from 780 flights
- 2 PM: 76.2% on time from 485 flights
- 3 PM: 76.3% on time from 480 flights
- 4 PM: 77.3% on time from 636 flights
- 5 PM: 71.5% on time from 720 flights
- 6 PM: 76.6% on time from 824 flights
- 7 PM: 73.3% on time from 563 flights
- 8 PM: 63.4% on time from 412 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why HOU → ATL 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 HOU → ATL. 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 | 4,993 | 79.1% | 0.84% | -3 min | 6.0% |
| Delta Air Lines | 4,626 | 84.4% | 1.49% | -10 min | 6.9% |
Southwest Airlines flew 51.9% of the 9,619 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 5.3 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Houston to Atlanta
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IAH→ATL Houston to Atlanta | 14,350 | 76.7% | 1.67% | -5 min | 58 |
| HOU→ATL this route Houston to Atlanta | 9,619 | 81.7% | 1.15% | -7 min | 70 |
HOU → ATL is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 81.7% on time, against 76.7% for IAH → ATL.
Flying to ATL from the Houston area? Compare HOU, IAH for ATL, 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.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL2557 Delta Air Lines | 6:00 AM | 999 | 90.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 5.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.9%
- Feb: 85.3%
- Mar: 81.1%
- Apr: 83.3%
- May: 72.6%
- Jun: 76.0%
- Jul: 73.0%
- Aug: 82.5%
- Sep: 89.4%
- Oct: 86.8%
- Nov: 86.6%
- Dec: 83.4%
May is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 16.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 79.7% from 289 flights
- August 2023: 79.7% from 261 flights
- September 2023: 84.5% from 298 flights
- October 2023: 87.7% from 310 flights
- November 2023: 93.7% from 302 flights
- December 2023: 87.9% from 307 flights
- January 2024: 78.3% from 245 flights
- February 2024: 90.8% from 219 flights
- March 2024: 86.9% from 276 flights
- April 2024: 86.3% from 291 flights
- May 2024: 69.7% from 313 flights
- June 2024: 85.5% from 275 flights
- July 2024: 66.1% from 277 flights
- August 2024: 87.5% from 272 flights
- September 2024: 92.2% from 260 flights
- October 2024: 87.7% from 277 flights
- November 2024: 83.3% from 258 flights
- December 2024: 79.6% from 270 flights
- January 2025: 87.1% from 229 flights
- February 2025: 81.4% from 211 flights
- March 2025: 87.5% from 248 flights
- April 2025: 79.0% from 245 flights
- May 2025: 76.1% from 261 flights
- June 2025: 69.0% from 268 flights
- July 2025: 73.6% from 275 flights
- August 2025: 80.2% from 262 flights
- September 2025: 92.4% from 250 flights
- October 2025: 84.7% from 256 flights
- November 2025: 81.5% from 254 flights
- December 2025: 82.0% from 254 flights
- January 2026: 84.0% from 219 flights
- February 2026: 83.2% from 199 flights
- March 2026: 67.4% from 239 flights
- April 2026: 84.2% from 235 flights
- May 2026: 72.5% from 242 flights
- June 2026: 72.5% from 232 flights
- July 2026: 71.5% from 240 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.7% against 81.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,619 HOU → ATL 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