The flight time from San Diego to Houston is 3 hours, 5 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves SAN San Diego, CA 5 minutes early.
18 minutes taxiing out
2 hours, 37 minutes in the air
7 minutes taxiing in
Arrives IAH Houston, TX 11 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

United
87%
Spirit
72%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from San Diego to Houston is 3 hours, 5 minutes. The time spent in the air is 2 hours, 37 minutes.

The flight distance from San Diego to Houston is 1303 Miles.

Reverse Journey

Houston to San Diego
3 hours, 19 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

United
3h 4m
Spirit
3h 12m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM1h2h3h
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0.00.20.40.60.81.0

Flights Per Week

35

Distance

1303 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND050100150

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun0246

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

United
33
Spirit
1

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is San Diego from Houston by plane?

The distance from San Diego to Houston by plane is 1303 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

How long is the flight from San Diego to Houston?

The flight time from San Diego to Houston is 3 hours, 5 minutes. The time spent in the air is 2 hours, 37 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with United being the fastest taking 3 hours, 4 minutes, and Spirit the slowest taking 3 hours, 12 minutes.

What airlines fly from San Diego to Houston?

United and Spirit are the airlines with direct flights from San Diego to Houston.

Does Southwest fly from San Diego to Houston?

Southwest does not fly from San Diego (SAN) to Houston (IAH). Keep in mind that Southwest may fly to other nearby airports, as they will often fly into smaller airpors instead of larger ones. This is because the costs are often lower to fly into smaller airports, and they pass the savings on to you.

Tables and Explanations

Data Source

Our information is computed from the latest available data from the US Department of Transportation.

Average Timeline Timeline Chart

The average timeline contains the median time a flight spends in 3 stages. The first of these three stages is taxiing out which includes the time from the flight leaving the gate to taking off. The second stage is in the air, which includes the time spent from the flight leaving the ground to touching back down at the end of it's journey. The last stage is taxiing in, which is from when the flight touches down to the flight arriving at it's gate.

The average timeline also estimates on average of when the flight will leave and arrive relative to it's stated departure time.

Leaves San Diego 5 minutes early
Taxi Out Time 18 minutes
In the Air 157 minutes
Taxiing In 7 minutes
Arrives Houston 11 minutes early

Flight Reliability Reliability Chart

The reliability of an airline measures how often the airline's flights on this route are cancelled or delayed more than 20 minutes. For example, from San Diego to Houston, Spirit is 72% reliable, which means that Spirit flights are on time 72% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
United 87% 11% 2%
Spirit 72% 22% 6%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between San Diego and Houston, this is due to different operational factors on the ground, as well as scheduling of planes. Each airline's flight time is split into three stages which are described above in the "Average Timeline" section. There are also miscellaneous operational issues which are included in the below total but are not accounted for in one of the three stages.

Airline Taxiing Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxiing In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
United 18 157 7 184
Spirit 15 163 10 192

Flights By Time of Day Flight Time By Day Chart

This one is pretty self explanatory, it represents the number of flights that leave the gate in a given hour of the day. The tricky thing here is that this is normally not a whole number since it is an average over 52 weeks. Partial numbers may indicate that a flight may be seasonal or may take off at different times due to different operational factors.

Time Count
9am 0.02
1pm 0.83
7am 0.09
11am 0.2
2pm 0.1
8am 1.04
4pm 0.2
10am 0.94
12pm 0.77
5pm 0.19
3pm 0.54

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from San Diego to Houston that take off in a given month of the year. This number changes because some flights are seasonal, and almost all flights have uneven demand througout the year.

Month Count
January 131
February 113
March 137
April 140
May 169
June 180
July 182
August 155
September 167
October 183
November 145
December 148

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from San Diego to Houston that take off on a given day of the week. Some routes only have enough demand to sustain a few trips a week, while others have many flights a day. This number is also an average across the year, and hence may not be a whole number.

Day Count
Monday 5.15
Tuesday 5.08
Wednesday 5.33
Thursday 5.15
Friday 5.19
Saturday 4.56
Sunday 5.12

Flight per Airline (per Week) Flights By Airline Chart

How many times an airline flies this route in a week. Different factors play into how often a carrier chooses to fly a given route including it's need to connect disparate routes, and demand.

Airline Flights per Week
United 1
Spirit 0

Flight Time By Time of Day Flight Time by Time of Day Chart

The total flight time varies by each hour of the day due to factors such as airport traffic. More flights leaving an airport may cause higher taxi in or taxi out times. See the description of the average timeline above for a deeper discussion of each of these times.

Time Taxi Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxi In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
9am 19 157 7 185
1pm 17 158 9 189
7am 23 166 7 195
11am 19 164 8 196
2pm 15 153 12 185
8am 17 158 6 183
4pm 17 154 6 177
10am 20 157 6 183
12pm 19 155 7 183
5pm 16 154 7 178
3pm 17 156 7 182
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.