Route profile
IND→HOU
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Indianapolis to Houston, 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 91% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,491 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IND → HOU arrives on time 84.6% of the time; the return trip, HOU → IND, arrives on time 76.6% of the time, an 8.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IND → HOU spends 17.7 minutes on the ground on an 861-mile trip: 11.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IND and 6.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at HOU.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 98% of 5,368 comparable routes.
86.1% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 86.0% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
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 IND to HOU differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IND to HOU is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 86.3% arrive on time, 9.1 points ahead of the 77.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.2 points.
IND to HOU holds up on Tuesdays better than routes of similar length do: 91.0% on time to their 81.0%, a 10 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 9.4 points.
June is kinder to IND to HOU than to routes of similar length: 84.9% on time against 71.6%, 13.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 12.2 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on IND to HOU than on its routes of similar length: 84.6% on time here, 76.5% there, 8.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.2 points.
IND to HOU against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 86.3% | routes of similar length | 77.2% | +9.1 pts | 131 here, 158,678 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 91.0% | routes of similar length | 81.0% | +10.0 pts | 178 here, 371,188 there |
| Month: June | 84.9% | routes of similar length | 71.6% | +13.3 pts | 139 here, 224,059 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 84.6% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | +8.1 pts | 1,471 here, 718,167 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
24 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 1,491 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at HOU after arriving from IND.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.1% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.6% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.1% | 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 0.94% 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 1,471 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 24 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,491 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IND → HOU flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.8% of the time, against 73.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 20.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 95.2% on time from 231 flights
- 6 AM: 91.0% on time from 136 flights
- 7 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 86.3% on time from 132 flights
- 2 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 73.1% on time from 173 flights
- 7 PM: 74.3% on time from 148 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IND → HOU runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s 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 IND → HOU. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IND → HOU, at 55.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.8% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 73.6%.
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 | 1,491 | 84.6% | 0.94% | -9 min | 3.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 10.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 86.1% against 86.0% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,491 IND → HOU 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