Carrier performance at one airport
AA→SAT
American Airlines at San Antonio International
- Departures
- 7,508
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 7
- Rank here
- #5 of 9
American Airlines at San Antonio lands a B, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 7,508 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 6,851 at 85.3% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs about a point behind the 81.9% weighted average across all carriers at SAT. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
80.8%
7,306 completed departures
Avg delay
107 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.45%
At SAT, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at SAT
These figures cover 7,508 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at SAT, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 85.3% of the time; Envoy Air manages 73.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 878 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 6,851 | 85.3% | 79 min | 1.42% | A |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,631 | 83.8% | 110 min | 1.35% | B |
| United Airlines | 5,684 | 83.4% | 76 min | 0.83% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 15,433 | 81.4% | 54 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 7,508 | 80.8% | 107 min | 2.45% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,205 | 79.5% | 81 min | 2.82% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 879 | 77.2% | 92 min | 1.25% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 558 | 74.9% | 53 min | 1.43% | C |
| Envoy Air | 878 | 73.8% | 72 min | 2.62% | C |
Delta leads Envoy by 12 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Route by route
Where American Airlines flies from SAT
American Airlines operates 7 routes out of SAT with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAT to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,549 | 77.7% | 105 min | 3.35% | B− |
| SAT to CLT · Charlotte | 1,371 | 86.3% | 129 min | 1.82% | A |
| SAT to PHX · Phoenix | 1,037 | 81.5% | 112 min | 0.96% | B+ |
| SAT to ORD · Chicago | 585 | 73.7% | 73 min | 2.22% | C |
| SAT to MIA · Miami | 399 | 90.8% | 101 min | 1.50% | A |
| SAT to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 352 | 90.1% | 153 min | 1.99% | A |
| SAT to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample | 211 | 78.7% | 94 min | 1.90% | B |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 31 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,568 flights89.8%
- 8am–11am2,000 flights85.3%
- 11am–2pm707 flights75.0%
- 2pm–5pm1,064 flights72.5%
- 5pm–8pm1,028 flights64.8%
- 8pm–5am141 flights58.4%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 58.4% on time, against 89.8% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 71.4% on time, 17 points below February, the best at 88.6%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 34%Carrier
- 14%Extreme weather
- 9%National Airspace System
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 14% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 2.2 times the usual weather exposure.
Cancellations sit at 2.45% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.24%.
8.6% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the close to two hours kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 7,508 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 88.6% on time and July 71.4%, a swing of 17 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else.
Common questions
American Airlines at SAT
How often is American Airlines at SAT delayed?
About one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.2% of the 7,508 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at SAT?
Delta Air Lines leads at 85.3% on time across 6,851 flights. Envoy Air is at the other end on 73.8%, a gap of 12 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on American Airlines at SAT?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 58.4%, 31 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on American Airlines at SAT?
July is the weakest month at 71.4% on time, compared with 88.6% in February. Across the year that is 17 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.