Route profile
HOU→FLL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Fort Lauderdale, 957 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 47% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,776 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
HOU → FLL arrives on time 73.8% of the time; the return trip, FLL → HOU, arrives on time 74.3% of the time.
HOU → FLL spends 17.9 minutes on the ground on a 957-mile trip: 12.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HOU and 5.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at FLL.
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 99% of 3,357 comparable routes.
90.9% on time in a typical September, against 60.6% in May.
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 HOU to FLL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
HOU to FLL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 80.5% arrive on time, 12.5 points ahead of the 68.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.9 points.
HOU to FLL struggles most at 3 PM: 59.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 11 points behind the 70.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.3 points.
Wednesday is the day HOU to FLL slips furthest against routes of similar length, 74.2% on time where they average 80.1%, 5.9 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 6.6 points.
In May, HOU to FLL runs 13.9 points below routes of similar length, 60.6% on time to 74.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 14.7 points.
September is kinder to HOU to FLL than to routes of similar length: 90.9% on time against 82.0%, 8.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.5 points.
HOU to FLL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 80.5% | routes of similar length | 68.0% | +12.5 pts | 236 here, 195,265 there |
| Hour: 3 PM departures | 59.4% | routes of similar length | 70.4% | −11.0 pts | 165 here, 185,283 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 74.2% | routes of similar length | 80.1% | −5.9 pts | 372 here, 417,854 there |
| Month: May | 60.6% | routes of similar length | 74.5% | −13.9 pts | 216 here, 255,857 there |
| Month: September | 90.9% | routes of similar length | 82.0% | +8.9 pts | 197 here, 232,545 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 957 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
43 min late
against a median of 1 min early
Percentiles over 2,776 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at FLL after arriving from HOU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 47% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.2% | 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 0.86% of the time and diverts 0.40% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,741 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 2,776 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
HOU → FLL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.5% of the time, against 60.0% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 32.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 92.2% on time from 357 flights
- 7 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 78.2% on time from 406 flights
- 11 AM: 78.5% on time from 209 flights
- 12 PM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 67.1% on time from 213 flights
- 3 PM: 59.4% on time from 167 flights
- 4 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 80.5% on time from 237 flights
- 7 PM: 67.7% on time from 387 flights
- 8 PM: 65.2% on time from 464 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why HOU → FLL 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 → FLL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on HOU → FLL, at 46.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.5% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 60.0%.
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 | 2,776 | 73.8% | 0.86% | -1 min | 6.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 5.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.1%
- Feb: 80.0%
- Mar: 65.9%
- Apr: 71.8%
- May: 60.6%
- Jun: 69.1%
- Jul: 64.6%
- Aug: 80.5%
- Sep: 90.9%
- Oct: 79.5%
- Nov: 78.4%
- Dec: 72.9%
May is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 30.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 66.0% against 76.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 10.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,776 HOU → FLL 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