Airport month record
SATJAN
San Antonio International in January 2026
- Departures
- 2,921
- Month
- January 2026
- National, same month
- 79.2%
- Carriers
- 9
Historical statistics for January 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s January. For today’s conditions at SAT, see live FAA status.
SAT in January carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.7% of scheduled flights never operate, against 4.7% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, more than four flights in five arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 2,921 flights, of which United Airlines flew 424 at 88.7% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 88.7% on time across 424 flights.
Key figures
On time
84.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,808 completed departures
Avg delay
96 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.70%
Nationally in January: 4.71%
Whole year
81.8%
SAT across all twelve months
These figures cover 2,921 departures from San Antonio International in January 2026. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.
Against the year
January next to SAT's other months
Against SAT's own year, January ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 81.8%, which makes it number three of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where January stands out: 3.70% of scheduled departures were called off, 2.9 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, December ran 83.7% on time and February 86.3%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 3,699 | 76.4% | 77 min | 1.49% | B |
| August 2025 | 3,444 | 81.5% | 79 min | 1.19% | B |
| September 2025 | 3,334 | 85.6% | 71 min | 0.63% | A+ |
| October 2025 | 3,656 | 83.7% | 68 min | 0.38% | B+ |
| November 2025 | 3,440 | 84.1% | 67 min | 1.19% | B |
| December 2025 | 3,588 | 83.7% | 66 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| January 2026 (this page) | 2,921 | 84.8% | 96 min | 3.70% | B− |
| February 2026 | 2,671 | 86.3% | 67 min | 1.27% | A |
| March 2026 | 3,439 | 79.9% | 74 min | 1.37% | B |
| April 2026 | 3,384 | 82.6% | 66 min | 0.74% | B+ |
| May 2026 | 3,485 | 80.7% | 79 min | 1.38% | B |
| June 2026 | 3,393 | 73.5% | 81 min | 1.65% | C |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave SAT in January
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 14 points, against 7 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am852 flights90.6%
- 8am–11am422 flights88.3%
- 11am–2pm566 flights84.7%
- 2pm–5pm583 flights80.6%
- 5pm–8pm455 flights76.8%
- 8pm–5am43 flights81.4%
Scale runs 70% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.6% of the time, against 76.8% for the evening window. That is 14 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 852 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 88.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 77.5%. 11 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at SAT in January
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 88.7% of the time; American Airlines manages 81.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 621 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 992 | 86.0% | 64 min | 1.92% | A |
| American Airlines | 621 | 81.4% | 153 min | 8.86% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines | 517 | 85.0% | 93 min | 2.71% | A |
| United Airlines | 424 | 88.7% | 91 min | 1.89% | A |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 98 | 88.4% | 151 min | 3.06% | A− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 76 | 80.3% | 63 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 72 | 75.0% | 71 min | 5.56% | B− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 71 | 85.1% | 57 min | 5.63% | A− |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 38 | 73.0% | 47 min | 2.63% | C |
American Airlines cancels 8.9% 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 in January
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAT to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 354 | 80.7% | 145 min | 9.32% | B− |
| SAT to DEN · Denverthin sample | 228 | 88.1% | 111 min | 0.88% | A+ |
| SAT to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 216 | 84.5% | 93 min | 3.70% | B− |
| SAT to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 215 | 86.1% | 102 min | 2.79% | A |
| SAT to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 205 | 89.2% | 64 min | 4.88% | A− |
| SAT to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 180 | 91.6% | 86 min | 0.56% | A+ |
| SAT to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 145 | 78.3% | 80 min | 3.45% | B− |
| SAT to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 137 | 82.5% | 73 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SAT to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 129 | 79.8% | 92 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SAT to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 118 | 86.4% | 198 min | 12.71% | A− |
| SAT to HOU · Houstonthin sample | 98 | 86.6% | 38 min | 1.02% | A |
| SAT to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 87 | 90.7% | 70 min | 1.15% | A |
| SAT to MCO · Orlandothin sample | 86 | 82.9% | 50 min | 4.65% | B− |
| SAT to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 66 | 82.3% | 89 min | 6.06% | B− |
| SAT to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 64 | 85.7% | 104 min | 1.56% | A |
| SAT to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 57 | 83.9% | 76 min | 1.75% | B |
| SAT to MIA · Miamithin sample | 51 | 79.6% | 211 min | 3.92% | B− |
| SAT to IAD · Washingtonthin sample | 48 | 89.1% | 23 min | 4.17% | A− |
| SAT to ELP · El Pasothin sample | 40 | 77.5% | 35 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SAT to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 39 | 91.9% | 32 min | 5.13% | A− |
| SAT to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 38 | 73.0% | 47 min | 2.63% | C |
| SAT to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 36 | 83.3% | 30 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SAT to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 35 | 91.2% | 78 min | 2.86% | A |
| SAT to TPA · Tampathin sample | 32 | 90.6% | 143 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SAT to MSY · New Orleansthin sample | 31 | 86.7% | 64 min | 3.23% | A− |
Delay causes
What held SAT up in January
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 41,000 reported delay minutes.
- 36%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 23%Extreme weather
- 13%National Airspace System
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 23% 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 comparison with the other months below is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 10%, so this operation carries roughly 2.4 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 40,890 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.70%, against 4.71% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 25 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
5.9% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 7.6%. 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 last an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
What to do with this
Flying from SAT in January
For a January trip through SAT: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 84.8% on time with 3.70% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- San Antonio International (SAT), the whole year
- SAT in July76.4%
- SAT in August81.5%
- SAT in September85.6%
- SAT in October83.7%
- SAT in November84.1%
- SAT in December83.7%
- SAT in February86.3%
- SAT in March79.9%
- SAT in April82.6%
- SAT in May80.7%
- SAT in June73.5%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.