Route profile
HOU→BWI
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Baltimore, 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 63% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,460 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
HOU → BWI arrives on time 78.7% of the time; the return trip, BWI → HOU, arrives on time 74.0% of the time, a 4.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
HOU → BWI spends 17.6 minutes on the ground on a 1,246-mile trip: 12.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HOU and 5.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at BWI.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where HOU to BWI differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
HOU to BWI struggles most at 4 PM: 56.8% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 12.1 points behind the 68.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.9 points.
HOU to BWI is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 74.9% arrive on time, 6.8 points ahead of the 68.1% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
January is kinder to HOU to BWI than to routes of similar length: 86.8% on time against 77.4%, 9.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
In June, HOU to BWI runs 5.1 points below routes of similar length, 66.7% on time to 71.8%. Against all other routes the gap is 6 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on HOU to BWI than on its routes of similar length: 78.7% on time here, 75.6% there, 3.1 points apart.
HOU to BWI against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 56.8% | routes of similar length | 68.9% | −12.1 pts | 273 here, 110,251 there |
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 74.9% | routes of similar length | 68.1% | +6.8 pts | 247 here, 124,130 there |
| Month: January | 86.8% | routes of similar length | 77.4% | +9.4 pts | 295 here, 145,396 there |
| Month: June | 66.7% | routes of similar length | 71.8% | −5.1 pts | 351 here, 150,188 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 78.7% | routes of similar length | 75.6% | +3.1 pts | 4,385 here, 387,989 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 HOU → BWI flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
HOU → BWI cancelled 66 of 4,460 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 68. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 80.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 84 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 66 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, 80.3% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
7 cancellations, 10.6% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
6 cancellations, 9.1% 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.
66 coded cancellations were recorded on HOU → BWI; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
34 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 4,460 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BWI after arriving from HOU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 42% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.5% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.5% | 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 1.48% of the time and diverts 0.20% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,385 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 34 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,460 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
HOU → BWI flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.3% of the time, against 65.8% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 27.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.3% on time from 735 flights
- 6 AM: 95.9% on time from 375 flights
- 7 AM: 91.1% on time from 147 flights
- 8 AM: 88.9% on time from 153 flights
- 9 AM: 87.2% on time from 134 flights
- 10 AM: 84.0% on time from 327 flights
- 11 AM: 82.7% on time from 283 flights
- 12 PM to 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 74.9% on time from 285 flights
- 4 PM: 56.8% on time from 278 flights
- 5 PM: 65.6% on time from 307 flights
- 6 PM: 74.9% on time from 253 flights
- 7 PM: 64.5% on time from 219 flights
- 8 PM: 65.4% on time from 572 flights
- 9 PM: 66.4% on time from 127 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why HOU → BWI runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
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 → BWI. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on HOU → BWI, at 43.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.3% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 65.8%.
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 | 4,460 | 78.7% | 1.48% | -3 min | 4.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 8.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.8%
- Feb: 86.0%
- Mar: 75.2%
- Apr: 79.6%
- May: 78.5%
- Jun: 66.7%
- Jul: 72.1%
- Aug: 77.6%
- Sep: 84.4%
- Oct: 79.7%
- Nov: 84.0%
- Dec: 78.9%
June is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 20.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (118)
- August 2023: 79.2% from 126 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (106)
- October 2023: 81.4% from 141 flights
- November 2023: 87.5% from 120 flights
- December 2023: 80.5% from 123 flights
- January 2024: too few flights to score (105)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (95)
- March 2024: 84.9% from 120 flights
- April 2024: too few flights to score (117)
- May 2024: 73.3% from 120 flights
- June 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- August 2024: 75.6% from 127 flights
- September 2024: 88.8% from 125 flights
- October 2024: 86.8% from 129 flights
- November 2024: 85.1% from 121 flights
- December 2024: 77.9% from 131 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (106)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (97)
- March 2025: 83.9% from 126 flights
- April 2025: 78.3% from 121 flights
- May 2025: 84.6% from 123 flights
- June 2025: 63.9% from 125 flights
- July 2025: 70.8% from 128 flights
- August 2025: 78.0% from 128 flights
- September 2025: 82.3% from 124 flights
- October 2025: 70.8% from 130 flights
- November 2025: 79.7% from 129 flights
- December 2025: 78.3% from 131 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (103)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (98)
- March 2026: 56.7% from 122 flights
- April 2026: 75.0% from 120 flights
- May 2026: 77.4% from 124 flights
- June 2026: 66.1% from 120 flights
- July 2026: 62.8% from 150 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 74.6% against 80.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 6.1 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,460 HOU → BWI 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