Route profile
TPA→HOU
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Tampa to Houston, 781 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 66% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,171 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
TPA → HOU arrives on time 80.8% of the time; the return trip, HOU → TPA, arrives on time 79.9% of the time.
TPA → HOU spends 18.6 minutes on the ground on a 781-mile trip: 12.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at TPA 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 96% of 4,023 comparable routes.
95.8% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 61.6% for 9 PM–5 AM.
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 TPA to HOU differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
TPA to HOU is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 81.3% arrive on time, 13.4 points ahead of the 67.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.7 points.
TPA to HOU holds up on Tuesdays better than routes of similar length do: 87.2% on time to their 81.2%, a 6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5.6 points.
April is kinder to TPA to HOU than to routes of similar length: 88.5% on time against 80.1%, 8.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.6 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on TPA to HOU than on its routes of similar length: 80.8% on time here, 77.6% there, 3.2 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.4 points.
TPA to HOU against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 81.3% | routes of similar length | 67.9% | +13.4 pts | 272 here, 149,838 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 87.2% | routes of similar length | 81.2% | +6.0 pts | 407 here, 308,380 there |
| Month: April | 88.5% | routes of similar length | 80.1% | +8.4 pts | 262 here, 182,588 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 80.8% | routes of similar length | 77.6% | +3.2 pts | 3,123 here, 641,953 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 781 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
34 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 3,171 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at HOU after arriving from TPA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.6% | 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 1.26% of the time and diverts 0.25% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,123 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 34 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,171 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
TPA → HOU flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 95.8% of the time, against 61.6% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 34.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 95.5% on time from 547 flights
- 6 AM: 95.8% on time from 537 flights
- 7 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 78.7% on time from 172 flights
- 12 PM: 78.5% on time from 345 flights
- 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 74.6% on time from 169 flights
- 3 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 81.3% on time from 277 flights
- 7 PM: 66.4% on time from 256 flights
- 8 PM: 62.5% on time from 308 flights
- 9 PM: 66.4% on time from 129 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why TPA → 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for TPA → HOU. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on TPA → HOU, at 52.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 95.8% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 61.6%.
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 | 3,171 | 80.8% | 1.26% | -7 min | 6.3% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 10.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.4%
- Feb: 85.9%
- Mar: 75.2%
- Apr: 88.5%
- May: 75.1%
- Jun: 78.6%
- Jul: 71.1%
- Aug: 83.3%
- Sep: 85.3%
- Oct: 84.5%
- Nov: 88.5%
- Dec: 79.2%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 17.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.5% against 85.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,171 TPA → 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