Route profile
HOU→IND
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Indianapolis, 861 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 1,492 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
HOU → IND arrives on time 76.6% of the time; the return trip, IND → HOU, arrives on time 84.6% of the time, an 8.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
HOU → IND spends 18.1 minutes on the ground on an 861-mile trip: 12.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HOU and 5.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at IND.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where HOU to IND differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
Sunday is the day HOU to IND slips furthest against routes of similar length, 67.3% on time where they average 74.2%, 6.9 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 7.5 points.
In March, HOU to IND runs 7.9 points below routes of similar length, 69.3% on time to 77.2%. Against all other routes the gap is 8.6 points.
HOU to IND against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday: Sunday | 67.3% | routes of similar length | 74.2% | −6.9 pts | 217 here, 399,146 there |
| Month: March | 69.3% | routes of similar length | 77.2% | −7.9 pts | 153 here, 228,688 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 861 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
40 min late
against a median of 2 min early
Percentiles over 1,492 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IND after arriving from HOU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 43% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 23% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.3% | 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 0.60% of the time and diverts 0.13% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,481 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 40 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,492 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
HOU → IND flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.2% of the time, against 69.1% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 19.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 87.8% on time from 123 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 85.1% on time from 143 flights
- 11 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 82.8% on time from 151 flights
- 2 PM to 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 64.2% on time from 148 flights
- 8 PM: 68.4% on time from 232 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why HOU → IND 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 → IND. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on HOU → IND, at 54.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.2% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 69.1%.
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 | 1,492 | 76.6% | 0.60% | -2 min | 6.3% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 13.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 73.6% against 78.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,492 HOU → IND 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