Connecting at Houston Hobby: one terminal, a central checkpoint and two concourses

Last checked 31 October 2026

Is a 45-minute layover enough at Houston Hobby?

We estimate about 12% of 45-minute connections at Houston Hobby (HOU) ended in a missed connection between September 2025 and August 2026. How we count a missed connection

Allow 77 minutes for a connection at Houston Hobby (HOU).

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Houston Hobby is one terminal where the central TSA checkpoint gives access to both concourses, the Central Concourse for mostly domestic flights and the West Concourse for domestic and international departures.

At a glance

• One terminal. Airlines, ticket counters, security checkpoints and gates are in one main building.
• Two concourses: Central (primarily domestic flights) and West (domestic and international departures). The central TSA checkpoint provides access to both.
• Check-in: ticketing counters are on Level 2. Southwest is on the west side; all other airlines are on the east side.
• Baggage claim is on Level 1: Southwest at carousels 1 and 2 (sometimes 3), all other airlines at 3 and 4.
• International arrivals go through Immigration first, then collect checked bags and go through Customs, in the Federal Inspection Services area.

Which airline is where?

The airport names Southwest and "all other airlines" and gives no list of airlines and no gate range for any of them. Your boarding pass or your airline's app names your concourse and gate. Gates can change, so check them again on the day.

Changing flights

Both concourses are in the same building and the central TSA checkpoint provides access to both. The airport's pages do not state whether a passenger changing between concourses stays inside the secure area the whole way, and they publish no walking time between the two. If you booked the flights separately, you collect your bags at Level 1, check in again and go through the checkpoint again; add the time for all of that.

Landing from another country

International arrivals first proceed through Immigration, then collect their checked bags and proceed through Customs, in the Federal Inspection Services area, which has three baggage carousels. The airport's pages do not say where connecting passengers recheck their bags or whether they are screened again, and we found no airport figure for the passport-control wait. The airport says Southwest's West Concourse, opened in 2015, returned international flights to Hobby for the first time in 46 years.

What is changing

The airport reported in December 2025 that its $470 million West Concourse Expansion was under construction and that it expects to complete it in 2027. It will add seven gates for domestic and international flights, two baggage carousels and a canopy from the Red Garage to the Departures Curb. Expect changes around the West Concourse and the departures curb.

Tips

• CLEAR is available Sunday to Friday 4:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Saturday 4:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Check the live information for the checkpoint's own hours.
• Check your gate again on the day: the airport says assignments can change.

GateCast grades your connection from A to F on how likely you are to make it. The grade is an estimate. GateCast knows which airlines you're flying but has no gate information, so check your boarding pass and add time for the walk between concourses.

How we count a missed connection

The layover times and missed-connection percentages on this page are estimates from our model, built on US DOT records (September 2025 to August 2026), with no guarantee; never book shorter than your airline's minimum connection time. All times and percentages are according to our model.

A missed connection means the real delays and cancellations that day left less time than our estimate of how long the change takes; estimated from US DOT on-time records for September 2025 to August 2026, with no passenger data.

The 45-minute figure is the estimated share of connections at Houston Hobby (HOU) that ended in a missed connection. The time in the box is the shortest layover after which another 15 minutes lowers the estimated missed-connection rate by less than 1 percentage point, on a curve fitted so that it never rises. The 1 percentage point is a judgement constant that we set. Extra time helps less and less because cancellations and long delays cause missed connections at any gap. Each time is our model's point estimate of where the fitted missed-connection curve levels off, from past flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The curve is calculated at 5-minute steps and joined by straight lines. Giving the time to the minute does not make it more certain: when we re-ran the estimate on 200 resampled sets of days, 95% of the times at Houston Hobby (HOU) fell between 73 and 81 minutes. At Houston Hobby (HOU), the estimated missed-connection rate was 5.7% at 77 minutes (and 3.7% at 2 hours) (share of connections, September 2025 to August 2026). We don't give a figure for 30 minutes. A 30-minute connection is close to our own estimate of the time to change planes, a median of 26 minutes in our data, so a percentage would mostly come from that estimate.

Checked 31 October 2026 (West Concourse expansion pages re-read 2 November 2026); layover figures checked 1 November 2026. Terminals, gates and airlines change, so confirm with the airport and your airline before you travel.

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