Route reliability record
AUS→MSP
Austin to Minneapolis
- Flights
- 1,684
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,042 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 1,684 AUS to MSP flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
Best time to fly AUS to MSP: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.4% of the time and Wednesday flights 83.8%, against 78.0% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,665 completed flights
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.83%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
79.6% on time across 1,022 flights
These figures cover 1,684 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 5 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on AUS to MSP
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 323 | 85.3% | 109 min | 0.31% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,022 | 79.6% | 89 min | 1.27% | B |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 339 | 66.1% | 44 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on AUS to MSP
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am365 flights90.4%
- 8am–11am348 flights84.9%
- 11am–2pm195 flights71.1%
- 2pm–5pm433 flights71.5%
- 5pm–8pm317 flights71.1%
- 8pm–5am26 flights—
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 71.1% on time against 90.4% for 5am–8am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 433 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter AUS to MSP 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 AUS to MSP, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.4% on time and the worst is 11am–2pm at 71.1%, a wide gap of 19.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.4%
- 8–11am84.9%
- 11am–2pm71.1%
- 2–5pm71.5%
- 5–8pm71.1%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 22 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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 90.8% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. October was the busiest month here, with 159 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.8% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.2%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 52% of the 28,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 52%Carrier
- 32%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 52%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 15,000 of the 28,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 28,450 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 are rare at 0.83%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.8% 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.
The 1,042 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg runs 80.0% on time across 1,685 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,684 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in MSP after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 90.8% on time and November 68.7%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of November before you think about anything else. 1,665 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
AUS to MSP questions
How often is AUS to MSP delayed?
Roughly one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 22.0% of the 1,684 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is AUS to MSP compared with the rest of the country?
78.0% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of half a point in its favour. That is worth a B+ on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on AUS to MSP?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.4% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 71.1%, 19 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 November delays on AUS to MSP?
November is the weakest month at 68.7% on time, compared with 90.8% in September. Across the year that is 22 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
- MSP to AUS — the return legseparate record
- Austin-Bergstrom International (AUS) delay statistics
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- SkyWest Airlines on AUS to MSP85.3%
- Delta Air Lines on AUS to MSP79.6%
- Southwest Airlines on AUS to MSP66.1%
- AUS to DEN, a related route78.9%
- ORD to MSP, a related route69.9%
- AUS to DFW, a related route74.9%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record85.3%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record79.6%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record66.1%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. AUS to MSP and MSP to AUS are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.