Route profile
MEM→HOU
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Memphis to Houston, 484 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 74% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,311 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MEM → HOU arrives on time 80.4% of the time; the return trip, HOU → MEM, arrives on time 76.3% of the time, a 4.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MEM → HOU spends 16.7 minutes on the ground on a 484-mile trip: 10.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MEM and 6.0 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 MEM to HOU differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MEM to HOU struggles most at 12 PM: 63.0% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 18.8 points behind the 81.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 16.4 points.
MEM to HOU is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 82.6% arrive on time, 12.2 points ahead of the 70.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.8 points.
March is kinder to MEM to HOU than to routes of similar length: 85.3% on time against 79.0%, 6.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on MEM to HOU than on its routes of similar length: 80.4% on time here, 77.7% there, 2.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3 points.
MEM to HOU against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 63.0% | routes of similar length | 81.8% | −18.8 pts | 208 here, 84,132 there |
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 82.6% | routes of similar length | 70.4% | +12.2 pts | 149 here, 106,683 there |
| Month: March | 85.3% | routes of similar length | 79.0% | +6.3 pts | 217 here, 116,214 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 80.4% | routes of similar length | 77.7% | +2.7 pts | 2,281 here, 372,123 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 484 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
32 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 2,311 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at HOU after arriving from MEM.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 2.7% | 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 1.00% of the time and diverts 0.30% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,281 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 32 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,311 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MEM → HOU flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.5% of the time, against 63.4% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 29.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.0% on time from 567 flights
- 6 AM: 90.9% on time from 315 flights
- 7 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 63.0% on time from 209 flights
- 1 PM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 82.6% on time from 150 flights
- 6 PM: 74.7% on time from 264 flights
- 7 PM: 65.7% on time from 281 flights
- 8 PM: 62.2% on time from 159 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MEM → 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 MEM → HOU. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MEM → HOU, at 56.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.5% of the time and 12–3 PM departures 63.4%.
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 | 2,311 | 80.4% | 1.00% | -6 min | 5.3% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 12.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.8%
- Feb: 86.5%
- Mar: 85.3%
- Apr: 83.3%
- May: 70.6%
- Jun: 71.0%
- Jul: 69.8%
- Aug: 82.0%
- Sep: 88.8%
- Oct: 88.6%
- Nov: 79.2%
- Dec: 83.6%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 19.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.6% against 82.4% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,311 MEM → 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