San Antonio, TX · departure reliability
SAT
San Antonio International
- Departures
- 40,065
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 9
- US rank
- #46 by volume
San Antonio
San Antonio International lands a B, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 40,065 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 1,638 at 86.3% on time.
SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the nine carriers covered here at 86.3% on time across 1,638 flights.
Key figures
On time
82.0%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.19%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
SkyWest
86.3% on time here
These figures cover 40,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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 SAT
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 86.3% of the time; Envoy Air manages 76.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,106 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 15,119 | 80.0% | 53 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 7,405 | 81.9% | 111 min | 2.17% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 6,840 | 85.9% | 81 min | 1.52% | A |
| United Airlines | 5,647 | 83.8% | 73 min | 0.69% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,638 | 86.3% | 111 min | 1.16% | A |
| Envoy Air | 1,106 | 76.6% | 67 min | 2.35% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 950 | 77.5% | 86 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 704 | 79.7% | 88 min | 4.26% | B− |
| Alaska Airlines | 550 | 78.9% | 57 min | 1.09% | B |
Spirit Airlines cancels 4.3% 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 SAT
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from SAT, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 82.0%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAT to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 4,374 | 79.4% | 104 min | 2.83% | B |
| SAT to DEN · Denver | 3,063 | 82.1% | 69 min | 0.52% | B+ |
| SAT to ATL · Atlanta | 2,962 | 85.9% | 76 min | 1.72% | A |
| SAT to DAL · Dallas | 2,740 | 83.4% | 59 min | 1.13% | B |
| SAT to PHX · Phoenix | 2,509 | 81.2% | 76 min | 0.40% | B+ |
| SAT to IAH · Houston | 2,372 | 83.0% | 59 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| SAT to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,049 | 78.8% | 58 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| SAT to ORD · Chicago | 2,004 | 76.4% | 79 min | 2.15% | B |
| SAT to LAX · Los Angeles | 1,814 | 85.9% | 88 min | 0.44% | A+ |
| SAT to CLT · Charlotte | 1,360 | 87.3% | 135 min | 1.84% | A |
| SAT to HOU · Houston | 1,298 | 74.8% | 52 min | 0.31% | C+ |
| SAT to MCO · Orlando | 1,042 | 78.1% | 72 min | 1.63% | B |
| SAT to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,014 | 86.9% | 78 min | 0.89% | A+ |
| SAT to BNA · Nashville | 957 | 77.8% | 51 min | 0.52% | B+ |
| SAT to DTW · Detroit | 934 | 90.7% | 67 min | 0.75% | A+ |
| SAT to MSP · Minneapolis | 898 | 86.0% | 66 min | 1.22% | A |
| SAT to ELP · El Paso | 737 | 79.6% | 55 min | 0.14% | B+ |
| SAT to BWI · Baltimore | 719 | 80.3% | 54 min | 1.53% | B |
| SAT to MDW · Chicago | 659 | 75.7% | 44 min | 1.06% | B |
| SAT to IAD · Washington | 644 | 93.2% | 99 min | 0.62% | A+ |
| SAT to SAN · San Diego | 611 | 77.2% | 55 min | 0.33% | B+ |
| SAT to EWR · Newark | 596 | 85.8% | 78 min | 1.17% | A |
| SAT to STL · St. Louis | 557 | 84.5% | 53 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SAT to SEA · Seattle | 550 | 78.9% | 57 min | 1.09% | B |
| SAT to MIA · Miami | 495 | 88.5% | 95 min | 0.61% | A+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave SAT
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 28 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am11,782 flights92.1%
- 8am–11am5,013 flights88.6%
- 11am–2pm7,733 flights81.7%
- 2pm–5pm7,576 flights75.1%
- 5pm–8pm6,416 flights71.0%
- 8pm–5am1,545 flights64.0%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.0% on time, against 92.1% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 11,782 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SAT 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 San Antonio (SAT), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.1% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 64.0%, a wide gap of 28.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.1%
- 8–11am88.6%
- 11am–2pm81.7%
- 2–5pm75.1%
- 5–8pm71.0%
- 8pm–5am64.0%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When SAT runs late
SAT's year swings by 13 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 73.5% on time, 13 points below February, the best at 86.3%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 3,656 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 85.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 79.2%, a spread of 7 points.
SAT month by month
Delay causes
Why SAT gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 524,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 8%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 524,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 524,164 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 92.1% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.19% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.28%.
6.2% 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.
40,065 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 SAT
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 86.3% on time and June 73.5%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 39,476 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SAT delay questions
How often is San Antonio (SAT) delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 18.0% of the 40,065 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 San Antonio (SAT)?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 86.3% on time across 1,638 flights. Envoy Air is at the other end on 76.6%, a gap of 10 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 San Antonio (SAT)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.1% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 64.0%, 28 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 San Antonio (SAT)?
June is the weakest month at 73.5% on time, compared with 86.3% in February. Across the year that is 13 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
- SAT to DFW — Dallas-Fort Worth79.4%
- SAT to DEN — Denver82.1%
- SAT to ATL — Atlanta85.9%
- SAT to DAL — Dallas83.4%
- SAT to PHX — Phoenix81.2%
- SAT to IAH — Houston83.0%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record80.0%
- American Airlines on-time record81.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record85.9%
- United Airlines on-time record83.8%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Dallas and Houston airports, plus Austin and San Antonio
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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.