Route profile
RDU→HOU
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Raleigh–Durham to Houston, 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 81% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,000 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
RDU → HOU arrives on time 81.5% of the time; the return trip, HOU → RDU, arrives on time 70.4% of the time, an 11.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
RDU → HOU spends 16.6 minutes on the ground on a 1,050-mile trip: 10.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at RDU and 6.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at HOU.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 92% of 4,467 comparable routes.
84.4% on time on the best day (Monday) against 79.7% on the worst (Friday).
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where RDU to HOU differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
RDU to HOU is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 81.5% arrive on time, 14.1 points ahead of the 67.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.7 points.
RDU to HOU holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 84.4% on time to their 75.9%, a 8.5 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.2 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on RDU to HOU than on its routes of similar length: 81.5% on time here, 75.2% there, 6.3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.1 points.
RDU to HOU against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 81.5% | routes of similar length | 67.4% | +14.1 pts | 135 here, 176,724 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 84.4% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | +8.5 pts | 141 here, 422,932 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 81.5% | routes of similar length | 75.2% | +6.3 pts | 991 here, 629,412 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
31 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 1,000 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at HOU after arriving from RDU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 37% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 10% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.5% | Low 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 0.80% of the time and diverts 0.10% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 991 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 31 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,000 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
RDU → HOU flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 94.3% of the time, against 70.7% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 23.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 81.5% on time from 135 flights
- 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 70.9% on time from 127 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why RDU → 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 RDU → HOU. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on RDU → HOU, at 60.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 94.3% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 70.7%.
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 | 81.5% | 0.80% | -5 min | 4.5% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Monday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 83.0% against 87.0% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,000 RDU → 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