Austin, TX · departure reliability
AUS
Austin-Bergstrom International
- Departures
- 89,226
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Carriers
- 11
- US rank
- #27 by volume
Austin
Austin-Bergstrom International lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four 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 89,226 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 2,047 at 82.9% on time.
Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the eleven carriers covered here at 82.9% on time across 2,047 flights.
Key figures
On time
76.6%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.21%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Alaska
82.9% on time here
These figures cover 89,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.0% 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of AUS
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 38,225 | 73.7% | 52 min | 0.60% | C+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 13,055 | 82.3% | 81 min | 1.42% | B |
| American Airlines | 11,691 | 76.2% | 116 min | 2.58% | B |
| United Airlines | 10,844 | 79.7% | 74 min | 1.18% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 8,035 | 80.5% | 86 min | 0.86% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,047 | 82.9% | 54 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,886 | 72.9% | 85 min | 2.01% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 994 | 63.2% | 81 min | 5.43% | D− |
| Envoy Air | 830 | 77.0% | 96 min | 3.49% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 733 | 65.0% | 81 min | 1.23% | C |
| Allegiant Air | 638 | 67.7% | 78 min | 0.31% | C+ |
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
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 76.6%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS to DEN · Denver | 5,310 | 78.4% | 63 min | 0.81% | B+ |
| AUS to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 4,742 | 73.8% | 113 min | 3.88% | C− |
| AUS to ATL · Atlanta | 4,544 | 82.0% | 68 min | 1.43% | B |
| AUS to LAX · Los Angeles | 4,077 | 81.3% | 70 min | 0.74% | B+ |
| AUS to PHX · Phoenix | 3,383 | 78.8% | 83 min | 0.77% | B+ |
| AUS to ORD · Chicago | 3,166 | 72.1% | 90 min | 2.15% | C |
| AUS to BNA · Nashville | 3,013 | 76.0% | 64 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| AUS to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,866 | 73.8% | 57 min | 0.49% | C+ |
| AUS to SFO · San Francisco | 2,795 | 74.9% | 65 min | 0.86% | C+ |
| AUS to MCO · Orlando | 2,792 | 72.9% | 62 min | 1.50% | C |
| AUS to IAH · Houston | 2,674 | 75.6% | 62 min | 1.23% | B |
| AUS to SAN · San Diego | 2,545 | 75.0% | 59 min | 1.06% | B |
| AUS to DAL · Dallas | 2,333 | 77.8% | 60 min | 1.71% | B |
| AUS to MIA · Miami | 2,161 | 78.5% | 73 min | 1.25% | B |
| AUS to JFK · New York | 2,160 | 80.9% | 85 min | 2.59% | B |
| AUS to EWR · Newark | 2,104 | 75.0% | 94 min | 2.66% | B |
| AUS to SEA · Seattle | 2,058 | 82.8% | 69 min | 1.07% | B |
| AUS to MSY · New Orleans | 2,025 | 76.7% | 58 min | 0.40% | B+ |
| AUS to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,784 | 82.4% | 75 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| AUS to CLT · Charlotte | 1,683 | 78.9% | 129 min | 2.26% | B |
| AUS to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,678 | 76.6% | 81 min | 0.83% | B+ |
| AUS to BOS · Boston | 1,634 | 65.4% | 81 min | 2.33% | C |
| AUS to TPA · Tampa | 1,518 | 75.9% | 59 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| AUS to HOU · Houston | 1,399 | 69.0% | 51 min | 0.21% | C+ |
| AUS to MDW · Chicago | 1,352 | 77.5% | 53 min | 1.26% | 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 26 points, against 20 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am17,485 flights90.4%
- 8am–11am14,082 flights86.4%
- 11am–2pm15,102 flights78.4%
- 2pm–5pm19,246 flights69.0%
- 5pm–8pm16,317 flights66.0%
- 8pm–5am6,994 flights64.2%
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.2% on time, against 90.4% 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 19,246 flights scheduled in it.
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. March was the busiest month here, with 7,973 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.7%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why AUS gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 1.46 million delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 32%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
44% 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 1.46 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 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 1,464,657 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 90.4% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.21% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.23%.
8.0% 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.
89,226 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. 87,938 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
AUS delay questions
How often is Austin (AUS) delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.4% of the 89,226 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 Austin (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 Austin (AUS)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 64.2%, 26 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 — Denver78.4%
- AUS to DFW — Dallas-Fort Worth73.8%
- AUS to ATL — Atlanta82.0%
- AUS to LAX — Los Angeles81.3%
- AUS to PHX — Phoenix78.8%
- AUS to ORD — Chicago72.1%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record73.7%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record82.3%
- American Airlines on-time record76.2%
- United Airlines on-time record79.7%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.