Route profile
HOU→RDU
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to Raleigh–Durham, 1,050 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 40% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,000 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
HOU → RDU arrives on time 70.4% of the time; the return trip, RDU → HOU, arrives on time 81.5% of the time, an 11.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
HOU → RDU spends 17.2 minutes on the ground on a 1,050-mile trip: 12.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HOU and 4.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at RDU.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where HOU to RDU differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
HOU to RDU struggles most at 2 PM: 60.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 12.3 points behind the 72.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14 points.
Wednesday is the day HOU to RDU slips furthest against routes of similar length, 69.5% on time where they average 79.5%, 10 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 11.3 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on HOU to RDU arrive on time 70.4% of the time, 4.8 points below the 75.2% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 7 points.
HOU to RDU against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 60.6% | routes of similar length | 72.9% | −12.3 pts | 317 here, 175,436 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 69.5% | routes of similar length | 79.5% | −10.0 pts | 128 here, 391,609 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 70.4% | routes of similar length | 75.2% | −4.8 pts | 994 here, 629,409 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 1,050 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.
HOU to RDU in context
This route against HOU and RDU as a whole, against similar routes from HOU, and against its own first year, July 2023 – July 2026.
Leaving HOU, HOU to RDU is on time 70.4% of the time, 8.5 points worse than the airport’s other departures at HOU (78.9%, from 169,077 flights).
Arriving at RDU, HOU to RDU is on time 70.4% of the time, 6.9 points worse than the airport’s other arrivals at RDU (77.3%, from 175,484 flights).
Of the 824 flights scheduled in hours with at least 120 flights, 2 PM is the busiest hour with 319 (38.7%), 60.6% of them on time, and 4 PM the quietest with 135 (16.4%), 74.1% of them on time.
Airport comparisons take this route’s flights out of the airport total. Length means within 15% of this route’s distance, with at least 3 other routes from the same origin. On-time gaps are stated at 2 points and 2 standard errors, cancellation gaps at 0.5 points and 2 standard errors, and every group needs 750 flights. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
44 min late
against a median of 1 min late
Percentiles over 1,000 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at RDU after arriving from HOU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 52% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 28% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 6.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.2% | 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 0.00% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 994 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 44 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,000 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
HOU → RDU flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 84.5% of the time, against 62.9% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 21.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 82.1% on time from 158 flights
- 12 PM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 60.6% on time from 319 flights
- 3 PM: 64.5% on time from 212 flights
- 4 PM: 74.1% on time from 135 flights
- 5 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why HOU → RDU 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 → RDU. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on HOU → RDU, at 47.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 84.5% of the time and 12–3 PM departures 62.9%.
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 | 1,000 | 70.4% | 0.60% | 1 min | 6.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 12.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 71.0% against 72.8% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,000 HOU → RDU 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