Austin, TX · departure reliability
AUS
Austin-Bergstrom International
- Departures
- 89,868
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 11
- US rank
- #27 by volume
Austin
Austin-Bergstrom International lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 89,868 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 1,886 at 84.3% on time.
Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the eleven carriers covered here at 84.3% on time across 1,886 flights.
Key figures
On time
76.5%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
70 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.18%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Alaska
84.3% on time here
These figures cover 90,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 4 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of AUS
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 84.3% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 62.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 812 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 38,550 | 72.8% | 51 min | 0.61% | C+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 13,200 | 82.6% | 79 min | 1.52% | B |
| American Airlines | 11,662 | 76.7% | 118 min | 2.28% | B |
| United Airlines | 10,877 | 80.1% | 75 min | 1.12% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 8,430 | 80.9% | 85 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,886 | 84.3% | 50 min | 1.01% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,821 | 74.1% | 80 min | 1.48% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 973 | 66.8% | 77 min | 2.26% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 812 | 62.8% | 84 min | 6.53% | D− |
| Envoy Air | 792 | 79.1% | 94 min | 2.65% | B |
| Allegiant Air | 605 | 65.6% | 83 min | 0.33% | C+ |
Spirit Airlines cancels 6.5% 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
Busiest routes out of AUS
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from AUS, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 76.5%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS to DEN · Denver | 5,509 | 78.9% | 63 min | 0.64% | B+ |
| AUS to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 4,728 | 74.9% | 109 min | 3.28% | C− |
| AUS to ATL · Atlanta | 4,484 | 81.9% | 69 min | 1.27% | B |
| AUS to LAX · Los Angeles | 4,084 | 82.6% | 66 min | 0.66% | B+ |
| AUS to PHX · Phoenix | 3,410 | 79.0% | 79 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| AUS to ORD · Chicago | 3,182 | 72.4% | 93 min | 2.11% | C |
| AUS to BNA · Nashville | 3,017 | 75.5% | 61 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| AUS to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,882 | 73.6% | 55 min | 0.45% | C+ |
| AUS to MCO · Orlando | 2,848 | 72.5% | 62 min | 1.37% | C |
| AUS to SFO · San Francisco | 2,788 | 72.4% | 67 min | 0.54% | C+ |
| AUS to IAH · Houston | 2,670 | 77.2% | 58 min | 1.01% | B |
| AUS to SAN · San Diego | 2,605 | 72.9% | 54 min | 1.23% | C |
| AUS to DAL · Dallas | 2,344 | 77.3% | 57 min | 1.58% | B |
| AUS to MIA · Miami | 2,236 | 79.8% | 73 min | 1.12% | B |
| AUS to JFK · New York | 2,227 | 79.6% | 98 min | 3.41% | B− |
| AUS to SEA · Seattle | 2,089 | 81.3% | 61 min | 0.86% | B+ |
| AUS to EWR · Newark | 2,054 | 77.1% | 95 min | 3.36% | B− |
| AUS to MSY · New Orleans | 1,934 | 76.2% | 55 min | 0.36% | B+ |
| AUS to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,798 | 81.1% | 76 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| AUS to BOS · Boston | 1,713 | 64.5% | 80 min | 2.69% | D |
| AUS to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,684 | 78.0% | 78 min | 0.83% | B+ |
| AUS to CLT · Charlotte | 1,646 | 79.6% | 124 min | 1.70% | B |
| AUS to TPA · Tampa | 1,555 | 75.2% | 61 min | 0.64% | B+ |
| AUS to IND · Indianapolis | 1,359 | 78.2% | 66 min | 0.52% | B+ |
| AUS to MDW · Chicago | 1,349 | 75.5% | 51 min | 0.89% | B+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave AUS
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 27 points, against 22 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am17,850 flights90.7%
- 8am–11am14,062 flights86.4%
- 11am–2pm15,478 flights77.3%
- 2pm–5pm19,449 flights69.1%
- 5pm–8pm16,349 flights65.9%
- 8pm–5am6,680 flights63.6%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 63.6% on time, against 90.7% 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. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 19,449 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter AUS departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from Austin (AUS), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.7% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 63.6%, a wide gap of 27.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.7%
- 8–11am86.4%
- 11am–2pm77.3%
- 2–5pm69.1%
- 5–8pm65.9%
- 8pm–5am63.6%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When AUS runs late
AUS's year swings by 15 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
June is the worst month at 69.1% on time, 15 points below September, the best at 84.2%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 8,177 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.4%, a spread of 11 points.
AUS month by month
From Europe
Transatlantic routes into AUS
3 European airports send scheduled passenger flights to AUS, 1,772 flights a year in both directions by the DOT's international count. The DOT keeps no delay record for international flights; the UK routes carry the CAA's departure punctuality, and every route sets its departure airport's EUROCONTROL figures beside AUS's own record above.
Delay causes
Why AUS gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 1.46 million delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 1.46 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. The split is drawn from 1,456,669 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 90.7% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.18% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.24%.
7.9% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
89,868 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.
What to do with this
Flying out of AUS
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 84.2% on time and June 69.1%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 88,594 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
AUS delay questions
How often is Austin (AUS) delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.5% of the 89,868 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Austin (AUS)?
Alaska Airlines leads at 84.3% on time across 1,886 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 62.8%, a gap of 22 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 Austin (AUS)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.7% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 63.6%, 27 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 June delays on Austin (AUS)?
June is the weakest month at 69.1% on time, compared with 84.2% 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
- AUS to DEN — Denver78.9%
- AUS to DFW — Dallas-Fort Worth74.9%
- AUS to ATL — Atlanta81.9%
- AUS to LAX — Los Angeles82.6%
- AUS to PHX — Phoenix79.0%
- AUS to ORD — Chicago72.4%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record72.8%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record82.6%
- American Airlines on-time record76.7%
- United Airlines on-time record80.1%
- Dallas and Houston airports, plus Austin and San Antonio
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.