HOU → DAL Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · HOUNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:53 UTC

Houston airport profile →

Destination · DALNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:53 UTC

Dallas airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

68/ 100Good

Better than 57% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 12,672 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

81.3%

10,074 of 12,386

Cancellation rate

2.07%

262 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-8 min

Average 3.8 min

Severe delays

6.1%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

60 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

12,672

1 carrier

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

HOU → DAL spends 17.7 minutes on the ground on a 239-mile trip: 12.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HOU and 5.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at DAL.

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

Why HOU → DAL flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

HOU → DAL cancelled 262 of 12,672 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 48. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 63.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 77 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather63.0%

Airline28.2%

Air traffic8.8%

Security0.0%

Of 262 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 77

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

165 cancellations, 63.0% of the total.

The airline1 in 171

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

74 cancellations, 28.2% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 551

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

23 cancellations, 8.8% 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.

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

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

36 min late

against a median of 8 min early

Arrived an hour or more late6.1%

Typical delay when late60 min

Cancelled2.07%

Landed somewhere else0.19%

Percentiles over 12,672 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at DAL after arriving from HOU.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, HOU → DAL arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	32%	Likely to miss
45 min	18%	High risk
60 min	12%	Some risk
90 min	6.0%	Some risk
120 min	3.4%	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 2.07% 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 12,386 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 36 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 12,672 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

HOU → DAL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.1% of the time, against 70.5% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 22.6 percentage points.

By day and hour

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

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 8.1 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.6 points.

On-time arrival rate for HOU to DAL 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
9 PM–10 PM

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

65–69
70–74
75–79
80–84
85–89
90–94
95–99

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 before 6 AM and after 10 PM (432 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 HOU to DAL. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	93.0% on time148 flights	93.1% on time161 flights	95.6% on time159 flights	94.4% on time144 flights	94.5% on time147 flights	97 flights, too few to score	96.0% on time130 flights
7 AM–8 AM	92.5% on time152 flights	95.6% on time138 flights	95.6% on time138 flights	96.7% on time151 flights	95.9% on time150 flights	60 flights, too few to score	115 flights, too few to score
8 AM–9 AM	81.9% on time140 flights	105 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	88.3% on time140 flights	92.1% on time144 flights	90.6% on time159 flights	93.2% on time135 flights
9 AM–10 AM	79 flights, too few to score	92.4% on time123 flights	89.2% on time125 flights	78 flights, too few to score	74 flights, too few to score	42 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	115 flights, too few to score	85.5% on time120 flights	86.4% on time121 flights	114 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score	85 flights, too few to score	92 flights, too few to score
11 AM–12 PM	82.4% on time137 flights	83.6% on time130 flights	86.5% on time131 flights	79.6% on time141 flights	78.2% on time139 flights	65 flights, too few to score	89 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	73 flights, too few to score	110 flights, too few to score	112 flights, too few to score	69 flights, too few to score	70 flights, too few to score	71 flights, too few to score	85 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	88 flights, too few to score	59 flights, too few to score	57 flights, too few to score	93 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score	109 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	77.9% on time140 flights	81.6% on time153 flights	80.5% on time153 flights	74.2% on time135 flights	79.4% on time138 flights	105 flights, too few to score	76.6% on time138 flights
3 PM–4 PM	28 flights, too few to score	52 flights, too few to score	55 flights, too few to score	35 flights, too few to score	27 flights, too few to score	65 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	75.2% on time161 flights	75.7% on time154 flights	78.7% on time151 flights	68.9% on time157 flights	76.3% on time158 flights	70 flights, too few to score	110 flights, too few to score
5 PM–6 PM	103 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score	98 flights, too few to score	105 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	68 flights, too few to score	90 flights, too few to score
6 PM–7 PM	78 flights, too few to score	98 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score	72 flights, too few to score	78 flights, too few to score	113 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score
7 PM–8 PM	69.7% on time134 flights	78.7% on time138 flights	80.9% on time138 flights	69.7% on time134 flights	74.4% on time135 flights	86 flights, too few to score	111 flights, too few to score
8 PM–9 PM	77.1% on time161 flights	81.9% on time130 flights	78.6% on time131 flights	65.1% on time156 flights	69.9% on time158 flights	76.4% on time129 flights	65.9% on time141 flights
9 PM–10 PM	71 flights, too few to score	78.0% on time133 flights	78.8% on time133 flights	61 flights, too few to score	60 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score

By departure window

5–9 AM93.1%

9 AM–12 PM85.7%

12–3 PM80.5%

3–6 PM74.5%

6–9 PM74.2%

9 PM–5 AM70.5%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why HOU → DAL runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft40.3%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Air traffic control29.7%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

The airline23.5%

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

Weather6.1%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.4%

screening or terminal security incidents

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

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on HOU → DAL, at 40.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.1% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 70.5%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

The harder-hit end is DAL, where the flight lands. Its figure counts departures from DAL, so it says more about how that airport copes than about this route. Bad weather cancels 9.8 times the normal rate at DAL against 3.4 times at HOU. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: HOU 2.9% against 0.8%, DAL 7.2% against 0.7%. 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 HOU and DAL in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	HOU	DAL
Cancelled in bad weather	2.9%	7.2%
Cancelled in normal hours	0.8%	0.7%
Arrived on time, bad weather	69.5%	60.8%
Arrived on time, normal hours	79.6%	76.8%
Departures in bad weather	13,363	15,025

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

Weather source and limits. In full: HOU, DAL, 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	12,672	81.3%	2.07%	-8 min	6.1%

Other ways to fly Houston to Dallas–Fort Worth

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

Other ways to fly Houston to Dallas–Fort Worth
Route	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Score
IAH→DFW Houston to Dallas–Fort Worth	16,944	73.2%	2.70%	-3 min	41
HOU→DAL this route Houston to Dallas	12,672	81.3%	2.07%	-8 min	68

HOU → DAL is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 81.3% on time, against 73.2% for IAH → DFW.

Flying to DAL from the Houston area? Compare HOU, IAH for DAL, 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
WN1636 Southwest Airlines	6:00 AM	886	94.4%
WN52 Southwest Airlines	7:00 PM	739	73.5%
WN4 Southwest Airlines	7:00 AM	659	95.2%
WN54 Southwest Airlines	8:30 PM	619	72.9%

WN4 (7:00 AM) arrived on time 95.2% of the time, 22.3 points more often than WN54 (8:30 PM) at 72.9%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon81.1%

Tue84.3%

Wed84.4%

Thu78.8%

Fri81.7%

Sat82.0%

Sun76.9%

Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.5 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

June is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 16.9 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 81.0% against 81.8% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 12,672 HOU → DAL 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

HOU airport DAL airport Return direction DAL → HOU

HOU→DAL

Right now

Route reliability

Why HOU → DAL 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 HOU → DAL 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 Houston to Dallas–Fort Worth

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology