Route profile
OAK→HOU
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Oakland to Houston, 1,642 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 95% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,336 flights. How this is calculated
OAK → HOU arrives on time 83.4% of the time; the return trip, HOU → OAK, arrives on time 76.1% of the time, a 7.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
OAK → HOU spends 18.8 minutes on the ground on a 1,642-mile trip: 13.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at OAK and 5.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at HOU.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
On-time performance swings unusually widely by time of day here, wider than 99% of 4,023 comparable routes.
91.8% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 54.4% for 12–3 PM.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where OAK to HOU differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
OAK to HOU holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 84.7% on time to their 75.5%, a 9.2 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 9.9 points.
November is kinder to OAK to HOU than to routes of similar length: 94.2% on time against 83.1%, 11.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.8 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on OAK to HOU than on its routes of similar length: 83.4% on time here, 75.5% there, 7.9 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6 points.
OAK to HOU against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday: Sunday | 84.7% | routes of similar length | 75.5% | +9.2 pts | 183 here, 222,226 there |
| Month: November | 94.2% | routes of similar length | 83.1% | +11.1 pts | 121 here, 117,863 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 83.4% | routes of similar length | 75.5% | +7.9 pts | 1,320 here, 322,076 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 1,642 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
23 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 1,336 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at HOU after arriving from OAK.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 7.0% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 2.1% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 0.9% | 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 0.45% of the time and diverts 0.75% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,320 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 23 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,336 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
OAK → HOU flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.8% of the time, against 54.4% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 37.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 92.3% on time from 458 flights
- 6 AM: 92.5% on time from 268 flights
- 7 AM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why OAK → HOU runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 OAK → HOU. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 | 1,336 | 83.4% | 0.45% | -3 min | 2.3% |
Other ways to fly San Francisco to Houston
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SFO→IAH San Francisco to Houston | 10,330 | 84.3% | 0.85% | -8 min | 81 |
| OAK→HOU this route Oakland to Houston | 1,336 | 83.4% | 0.45% | -3 min | 86 |
OAK → HOU is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 83.4% on time, against 84.3% for SFO → IAH.
Flying to HOU from the San Francisco area? Compare OAK, SFO, SJC for HOU, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.0% against 87.8% in the 12 months before — declining by 10.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,336 OAK → 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