Route profile
HOU→JAX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Jacksonville, 816 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 34% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,004 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
HOU → JAX arrives on time 71.3% of the time; the return trip, JAX → HOU, arrives on time 85.4% of the time, a 14.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
HOU → JAX spends 19.1 minutes on the ground on an 816-mile trip: 12.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HOU and 6.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at JAX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability on this route has fallen unusually sharply over the past year, a bigger swing than 94% of 5,368 comparable routes.
60.9% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 71.9% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), a change of 11.0 points.
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 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where HOU to JAX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
HOU to JAX struggles most at 8 PM: 53.7% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 13.3 points behind the 67.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.7 points.
Monday is the day HOU to JAX slips furthest against routes of similar length, 65.0% on time where they average 77.0%, 12 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 12.3 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on HOU to JAX arrive on time 71.3% of the time, 5.9 points below the 77.2% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
HOU to JAX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 53.7% | routes of similar length | 67.0% | −13.3 pts | 177 here, 117,615 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 65.0% | routes of similar length | 77.0% | −12.0 pts | 143 here, 339,365 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 71.3% | routes of similar length | 77.2% | −5.9 pts | 995 here, 631,699 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 816 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
49 min late
against a median of 1 min late
Percentiles over 1,004 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at JAX after arriving from HOU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 50% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 27% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 7.5% | 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 0.80% of the time and diverts 0.10% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 995 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 49 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,004 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
HOU → JAX flights departing 12–3 PM arrived on time 84.4% of the time, against 62.1% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 22.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 65.8% on time from 157 flights
- 8 PM: 53.7% on time from 178 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why HOU → JAX 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 → JAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on HOU → JAX, at 53.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 12–3 PM departures arrived on time 84.4% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 62.1%.
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 | 1,004 | 71.3% | 0.80% | 1 min | 7.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 12.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 60.9% against 71.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 11.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,004 HOU → JAX 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