Route profile
LGA→HOU
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New York to Houston, 1,428 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 24% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,903 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
LGA → HOU arrives on time 75.0% of the time; the return trip, HOU → LGA, arrives on time 73.4% of the time.
LGA → HOU spends 29.5 minutes on the ground on a 1,428-mile trip: 23.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LGA and 5.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at HOU.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where LGA to HOU differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LGA to HOU struggles most at 5 PM: 58.7% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10.6 points behind the 69.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.1 points.
Wednesday is the day LGA to HOU slips furthest against routes of similar length, 76.8% on time where they average 80.3%, 3.5 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 4 points.
In May, LGA to HOU runs 10 points below routes of similar length, 64.5% on time to 74.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 10.8 points.
LGA to HOU against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 58.7% | routes of similar length | 69.3% | −10.6 pts | 528 here, 100,928 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 76.8% | routes of similar length | 80.3% | −3.5 pts | 586 here, 221,653 there |
| Month: May | 64.5% | routes of similar length | 74.5% | −10.0 pts | 324 here, 133,747 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 1,428 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.
Why LGA → HOU flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LGA → HOU cancelled 88 of 3,903 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 44. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 50.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 89 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 88 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
44 cancellations, 50.0% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
24 cancellations, 27.3% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
20 cancellations, 22.7% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
88 coded cancellations were recorded on LGA → HOU; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
51 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 3,903 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at HOU after arriving from LGA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 24% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.3% | Some 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 2.25% of the time and diverts 0.46% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,797 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 51 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,903 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LGA → HOU flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.4% of the time, against 62.5% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 26.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 92.7% on time from 656 flights
- 7 AM: 86.7% on time from 343 flights
- 8 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 78.1% on time from 350 flights
- 12 PM: 75.7% on time from 230 flights
- 1 PM: 66.6% on time from 303 flights
- 2 PM: 68.3% on time from 543 flights
- 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 66.1% on time from 173 flights
- 5 PM: 58.7% on time from 545 flights
- 6 PM: 68.3% on time from 362 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why LGA → HOU 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 LGA → HOU. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on LGA → HOU, at 44.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.4% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 62.5%.
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 | 3,903 | 75.0% | 2.25% | -5 min | 8.7% |
Other ways to fly New York to Houston
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LGA→IAH New York to Houston | 12,405 | 78.7% | 2.31% | -11 min | 56 |
| LGA→HOU this route New York to Houston | 3,903 | 75.0% | 2.25% | -5 min | 55 |
Flying to HOU from the New York area? Compare LGA, EWR, JFK for HOU, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.8%
- Feb: 82.2%
- Mar: 80.1%
- Apr: 77.6%
- May: 64.5%
- Jun: 69.6%
- Jul: 68.3%
- Aug: 75.2%
- Sep: 81.4%
- Oct: 78.1%
- Nov: 78.8%
- Dec: 71.9%
May is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 17.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (88)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (89)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (84)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (89)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (86)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (90)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (89)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (83)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (88)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (86)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (89)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (111)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (104)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (112)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (110)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (108)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (112)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- December 2025: 63.0% from 120 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (116)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (104)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (116)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (115)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (119)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (112)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (116)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 72.5% against 77.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,903 LGA → 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