Guide
Weekend getaway flights: Friday out, Sunday back, and better options
Sunday departures from Nashville ran 70.0% on time; Saturday ones 77.8%. Getaway airports punish the Sunday return. Which days, airports and routes to pick instead.
A Friday-to-Sunday trip to Nashville is two flights, and the data treats them very differently. Departures from Nashville International on Sundays arrived on time 70.0% of the time over September 2025 to August 2026. On Saturdays the same airport managed 77.8%. The flight home is where a weekend trip is most likely to go wrong.
Moving it by one day buys more than almost any other change you can make.
The best day of the week guide sets out the national weekly curve and why Sunday sits at the bottom of it. This guide narrows that to the short leisure trip: the airports people fly to for a weekend, the routes into them from the big cities, and what the Thursday, Saturday and Monday alternatives are actually worth.
The return leg: the getaway airports on Sunday
On-time percentage. Darker means more delays; the best cell in each row is outlined.
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHS | 79 | 82 | 83 | 79 | 79 | 80 | 73 |
| TPA | 76 | 83 | 84 | 78 | 78 | 78 | 72 |
| MSY | 76 | 84 | 84 | 77 | 77 | 80 | 70 |
| PHX | 76 | 82 | 81 | 77 | 77 | 81 | 74 |
| LAS | 75 | 82 | 83 | 74 | 72 | 82 | 73 |
| AUS | 74 | 82 | 81 | 75 | 75 | 79 | 71 |
| SAN | 74 | 83 | 81 | 71 | 71 | 83 | 73 |
| BNA | 72 | 80 | 80 | 73 | 73 | 78 | 70 |
| MCO | 71 | 80 | 82 | 76 | 74 | 73 | 67 |
On-time percentage for departures from each airport, by day of the week, across the full year. Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, September 2025 to August 2026.
Read across the Sunday column and every airport is at or near its weakest. Orlando departures ran 67.0% on time on Sundays, New Orleans 70.1%, Austin 71.4%, Nashville 70.0%. These are the flights that carry weekend visitors home, and they leave on the day when the national system is at its fullest: leisure returns, business travellers positioning for Monday, and aircraft that have flown all weekend without a light day to recover.
Now read the Saturday column. At Las Vegas Saturday departures ran 82.4% on time against 73.4% on Sunday. At San Diego, 83.0% against 72.8%. Nashville, New Orleans and Austin show the same step, several points in every case.
SaturdaySunday
55.0%85.0%
On-time percentage for departures on each day across the full year. Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, September 2025 to August 2026.
Orlando and the other Florida airports are the exception. Orlando's Saturday (72.9%) beats its Sunday but still sits below Orlando's own average for the week, 74.6%, and Fort Lauderdale and Miami look the same: Saturday lifts you out of the Sunday hole and no further. Florida's leisure week likely turns over on Saturday as well as Sunday, with week-long holidays and cruises starting and ending on both days. In Florida the good days are midweek: Orlando's Wednesday departures ran 82.1%.
Why Monday is not the fix
The obvious workaround for a Sunday return is Monday, and at most getaway airports it buys little. Las Vegas Monday departures ran 74.6%, a point or so better than Sunday. San Diego ran 74.1% and Nashville 72.2%, both a couple of points up on Sunday and well short of Saturday. Monday carries its own peak, the business travellers leaving for the week, and it inherits whatever Sunday night left undone. Charleston (78.6% on Mondays) and New Orleans (76.4%) are the two getaway airports where Monday is a real improvement.
Routes home from a weekend away
50.0%75.0%
Bars are Sunday departures; the figure under each route is its Saturday rate. Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, September 2025 to August 2026.
At route level the Saturday advantage is often ten points or more. Nashville to Chicago Midway ran 69.0% on time on Sundays and 85.9% on Saturdays. Nashville to Washington National ran 67.1% against 85.8%, and Nashville to LaGuardia 63.0% against 78.9%. San Diego to Dallas Love Field ran 57.1% on Sundays, one of the weakest getaway returns in the data, and 83.4% on Saturdays. Austin to Love Field shows the same gap on a much shorter trip.
The worst of them is the Florida return to New York. Orlando to LaGuardia ran 56.9% on time on Sundays, and there Saturday (70.3%) helps less than a Wednesday (76.6%) would. With a Monday-morning commitment in New York, that Sunday flight is the one I would not book.
The carrier matters most on exactly these flights. On the Las Vegas to Los Angeles route, the Sunday figure is an average of very different operations: Southwest's flights ran far worse on Sundays than Delta's, and the gap between them was widest on the two weekend travel days, Friday and Sunday. On Orlando to LaGuardia, Delta held up on Sunday far better than JetBlue. Southwest's point-to-point model rotates each aircraft through several cities a day, so a Sunday afternoon at Las Vegas inherits delay from the whole network; Southwest at Las Vegas is the largest operation at the airport by a distance.
The outbound leg: Friday is not always the problem
The outbound half of the weekend behaves less predictably. Las Vegas and San Diego have their worst day of the week on Friday, likely because Friday is when weekend visitors pour in and the inbound aircraft arrive late. That hurts the Friday flight into Las Vegas too: O'Hare to Las Vegas ran 69.1% on time on Fridays against 76.9% on Saturdays.
From the East Coast it can go the other way. Friday departures from LaGuardia ran 74.2% on time, better than its Thursdays (70.3%), and JFK showed the same pattern. The data does not say why, and LaGuardia schedules slightly more flights on Fridays than on Thursdays. But the pattern held across the year: a Thursday departure to beat the Friday crowds bought nothing from New York.
The airlines on Saturday and Sunday
SaturdaySunday
55.0%85.0%
On-time percentage for each airline's departures on each day across the full year. Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, September 2025 to August 2026.
The biggest drop from Saturday to Sunday belongs to JetBlue, down to 63.8% on Sundays, and Southwest, down to 71.0%. Both carry a large share of weekend leisure traffic. Allegiant, which flies many of its getaway routes only a few days a week, is weak on both weekend days: 70.3% on Saturdays and 70.4% on Sundays. Delta runs a Sunday of 76.5%, better than the annual average of half the airlines in the chart.
How I would plan a weekend away
Come home on Saturday if the trip allows. At Las Vegas, San Diego, Nashville, Austin and New Orleans a Saturday return beat the Sunday one by several points across the year. A Friday-to-Saturday trip, or a Saturday-to-Saturday week, is the single biggest change available, and it is the one I would make first.
For Florida, shift the whole trip to midweek. In Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami both weekend days are weak. A Tuesday or Wednesday return is the one that runs well.
If Sunday is fixed, fly it early. A Sunday morning departure leaves before the day's delays pile up. The best time of day guide covers why the first wave holds, and the best time to fly tool checks a specific route.
Pick the carrier on the return, not the outbound. Where two airlines fly the route home, compare their Sunday records on the route-airline pages; the gap between carriers is often widest on the weekend travel days.
Do not trade Friday for Thursday from New York. The data does not support it. From O'Hare, Thursday beats Friday by a few points; from Dallas-Fort Worth the two are level; on the busy western routes into Las Vegas, from Los Angeles, Denver and Seattle, Saturday beats both.
Check the getaway airports: Las Vegas (LAS) · Nashville (BNA) · New Orleans (MSY) · Orlando (MCO) · San Diego (SAN) · Compare any US route