Carrier performance at one airport
DL→AUS
Delta Air Lines at Austin-Bergstrom International
- Departures
- 13,055
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 13
- Rank here
- #2 of 11
Delta Air Lines at Austin lands a B, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in six arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 13,055 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 2,047 at 82.9% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 6 points ahead of the 76.6% weighted average across all carriers at AUS. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
82.3%
12,835 completed departures
Avg delay
81 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.42%
At AUS, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 11 carriers clearing the floor at AUS
These figures cover 13,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 9 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Against the competition
Every carrier at AUS, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 82.9% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 63.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 994 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 2,047 | 82.9% | 54 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 13,055 | 82.3% | 81 min | 1.42% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 8,035 | 80.5% | 86 min | 0.86% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 10,844 | 79.7% | 74 min | 1.18% | B |
| Envoy Air | 830 | 77.0% | 96 min | 3.49% | B− |
| American Airlines | 11,691 | 76.2% | 116 min | 2.58% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 38,225 | 73.7% | 52 min | 0.60% | C+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,886 | 72.9% | 85 min | 2.01% | C |
| Allegiant Air | 638 | 67.7% | 78 min | 0.31% | C+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 733 | 65.0% | 81 min | 1.23% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 994 | 63.2% | 81 min | 5.43% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 5.4% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where Delta Air Lines flies from AUS
Delta Air Lines operates 13 routes out of AUS 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS to ATL · Atlanta | 3,232 | 85.6% | 73 min | 1.49% | A |
| AUS to LAX · Los Angeles | 1,286 | 83.0% | 69 min | 1.09% | B |
| AUS to DTW · Detroit | 1,284 | 87.7% | 107 min | 1.25% | A |
| AUS to JFK · New York | 1,278 | 83.3% | 80 min | 2.03% | B |
| AUS to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,081 | 86.5% | 93 min | 0.74% | A+ |
| AUS to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,021 | 77.5% | 92 min | 1.27% | B |
| AUS to BOS · Boston | 988 | 70.9% | 91 min | 2.73% | C |
| AUS to SEA · Seattle | 935 | 84.9% | 94 min | 1.07% | B |
| AUS to MCO · Orlando | 547 | 81.1% | 61 min | 1.46% | B |
| AUS to SFO · San Francisco | 444 | 66.7% | 59 min | 1.13% | C |
| AUS to LAS · Las Vegas | 365 | 70.2% | 85 min | 0.82% | C+ |
| AUS to TPA · Tampa | 365 | 83.9% | 63 min | 1.10% | B |
| AUS to MIA · Miamithin sample | 221 | 89.4% | 84 min | 1.36% | A |
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 18 points, against 20 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am3,182 flights91.0%
- 8am–11am2,187 flights88.5%
- 11am–2pm2,201 flights83.3%
- 2pm–5pm2,884 flights73.4%
- 5pm–8pm2,543 flights75.6%
- 8pm–5am58 flights82.5%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.0% of the time, against 73.4% for the afternoon window. That is 18 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 3,182 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 74.7% on time, 15 points below September, the best at 89.2%. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 1,209 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 45%Carrier
- 35%Late-arriving aircraft
- 18%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
35% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 184,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 184,378 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.42% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
6.6% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. 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 a little over an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
13,055 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 89.2% on time and July 74.7%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 12,835 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at AUS
How often is Delta Air Lines at AUS delayed?
About one flight in six arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.7% of the 13,055 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Delta Air Lines at AUS?
Alaska Airlines leads at 82.9% on time across 2,047 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 63.2%, a gap of 20 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 Delta Air Lines at AUS?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.0% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 73.4%, 18 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 Delta Air Lines at AUS?
July is the weakest month at 74.7% on time, compared with 89.2% in September. Across the year that is 15 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.