Routes › Houston (HOU) › HOU to SEA
Route · 12 months to July 2026
Houston to Seattle: on-time record
William P Hobby to Seattle/Tacoma International
BTS: A flight is counted as on time if it arrived less than 15 minutes after its scheduled time. Only carriers with at least 0.5 percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenue report. Data through July 2026; this is a monthly history, not live flight status.
67.5% of scheduled HOU to SEA flights arrived on time in the 12 months to July 2026. The figure covers 120 flights between Houston and Seattle by carriers that report to BTS, a distance of 1,894 miles.
That is 8.5 points below the national on-time share of 76.0% for the same period and 8.5 points below the 76.0% recorded for all departures from HOU. Flights that did arrive were 15.4 min late on average, and 0.0% of scheduled flights were cancelled (national: 1.8%).
Southwest Airlines is the only reporting carrier on the route, with 120 flights in the period.
Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category on this route, late-arriving aircraft 55%, air carrier 20% and national aviation system 17%.
- On time 67.5%
- Arrived 15+ minutes late 32.5%
- Cancelled 0.0%
- Diverted 0.0%
Airlines on the route compared
| Reporting carrier | Flights | Share | On time | Avg arrival delay | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WN Southwest Airlines | 120 | 100% | 67.5% | 15.4 min | 0.0% |
Carriers with at least 24 flights in the 12 months to July 2026. The on-time pill is green when a carrier is at or above the route's overall share. Regional carriers operate flights sold under larger airlines' brands; BTS lists the carrier that operated the flight.
Compared with the airports and the nation
| Measure | HOU to SEA | All departures from HOU | All arrivals at SEA | All reported flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrived on time | 67.5% | 76.0% | 78.8% | 76.0% |
| Arrived 15+ minutes late | 32.5% | 22.9% | 20.0% | 21.9% |
| Cancelled | 0.0% | 0.9% | 1.1% | 1.8% |
| Diverted | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.3% |
| Average arrival delay | 15.4 min | 7.0 min | 3.1 min | 8.1 min |
| Delay minutes per 100 flights | 1,837 | 1,331 | 1,281 | 1,684 |
| Scheduled flights | 120 | 53,894 | 164,830 | 7,043,858 |
12 months to July 2026. Delay minutes count late arrivals only (an early arrival is zero), so the per-100-flights row is a normalised total rather than an average of early and late.
The return direction, SEA to HOU, recorded 60.8% on time across 120 flights in the same period.
Month by month
By scheduled departure hour
Delay causes
Seasonality
| Calendar month | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg arrival delay | Years in sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun | 53 | 45.3% | 0.0% | 30.1 min | 2 |
| Jul | 62 | 61.3% | 0.0% | 22.9 min | 2 |
| Aug | 31 | 77.4% | 0.0% | 6.9 min | 1 |
| Sep | 30 | 83.3% | 0.0% | 4.7 min | 1 |
| Oct | 1 | 100.0% | 0.0% | 1.0 min | 1 |
Each calendar month summed across the 36 months on file, so most rows combine three years. The pill compares the month with the route's own 12-month share.
Other routes from Houston (HOU)
| Route | Cities | Flights | On time | Avg arrival delay | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOU–DAL | Houston to Dallas | 4,047 | 79.0% | 3.5 min | 2.2% |
| HOU–ATL | Houston to Atlanta | 2,882 | 78.5% | 7.0 min | 1.2% |
| HOU–DEN | Houston to Denver | 2,380 | 77.2% | 5.7 min | 0.3% |
| HOU–MSY | Houston to New Orleans | 2,297 | 82.8% | 1.7 min | 0.2% |
| HOU–PHX | Houston to Phoenix | 2,098 | 76.5% | 5.7 min | 0.5% |
| HOU–MCO | Houston to Orlando | 2,054 | 76.6% | 7.2 min | 0.8% |
| HOU–LAS | Houston to Las Vegas | 2,021 | 80.2% | 2.9 min | 0.3% |
| HOU–DFW | Houston to Dallas/Fort Worth | 2,001 | 74.3% | 14.2 min | 4.1% |
All 70 routes and the airport record for HOU · airport record for SEA
Questions and answers
How often are flights from Houston to Seattle on time?
67.5% of the 120 flights scheduled from HOU to SEA in the 12 months to July 2026 arrived less than 15 minutes after their scheduled time. The national share for the same period was 76.0%. Cancelled and diverted flights count as not on time.
Which airline has the highest on-time share from HOU to SEA?
Southwest Airlines is the only reporting carrier with at least 60 flights on the route in the period, so there is no comparison to make.
What causes delays between Houston and Seattle?
For flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late, carriers attributed the delay minutes as follows: late-arriving aircraft 55%, air carrier 20%, national aviation system 17%, extreme weather 8%, security 0%. The categories are the carriers' own reports to BTS; weather that slows the wider system is usually recorded under the National Aviation System rather than extreme weather.
What time of day has the highest on-time share from HOU?
Too few departure hours carry enough flights on this route to compare them.
Is it getting better?
The route does not have enough flights in the previous 12 months for a year-on-year comparison. The monthly chart on this page shows the months that are available.
Where does this data come from?
Every figure is computed from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance files, which list each scheduled domestic flight by the carriers required to report. This page covers August 2023 to July 2026. It shows totals and averages only; it is not a live flight-status service.
Provenance
Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance (1987 to present), monthly files August 2023 to July 2026, a US government work in the public domain. Figures are totals and averages over all scheduled flights by reporting carriers on the route; no individual flight or aircraft is identified. Times are local to the departure airport. The load factor and passenger counts from the BTS T-100 series are not included in this edition. See the methodology; report processing errors through corrections.