Route reliability record

DFW→SAT

Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio

Flights: 4,403
Period: June 2025 to May 2026
Distance: 247 mi
Carriers: 4

This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about two flights in three arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 4,403 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 384 at 81.2% on time.

SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 81.2% on time across 384 flights.

On time

67.4%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,251 completed flights

Avg delay

77 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

3.32%

National rate is 1.80%

Best carrier

SkyWest

81.2% on time across 384 flights

These figures cover 4,403 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 13.4% 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 airline is most reliable on DFW to SAT

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 81.2% of the time; American Airlines manages 64.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 3,551 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance by carrier on DFW to SAT
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SkyWest Airlines	384	81.2%	70 min	2.86%	B
PSA Airlinesthin sample	5	80.0%	15 min	0.00%	B+
Envoy Air	463	76.4%	51 min	2.81%	B
American Airlines	3,551	64.7%	80 min	3.44%	D−

American Airlines cancels 3.4% 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.

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 28 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am334 flights83.5%
8am–11am852 flights80.3%
11am–2pm535 flights71.0%
2pm–5pm850 flights67.5%
5pm–8pm902 flights58.4%
8pm–5am930 flights55.7%

Scale runs 45% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 55.7% on time, against 83.5% 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.

Across the year

When delays peak on this route

This route's year swings by 21 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.

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.February best, August worst

August is the worst month at 58.0% on time, 21 points below February, the best at 79.3%. 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.

Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 71.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 58.1%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why this route gets delayed

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 52% of the 107,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
52%
Carrier
32%
Extreme weather
8%
National Airspace System
8%
Security
0%

52% 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 107,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 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 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 83.5% on time here.

Cancellations run at 3.32%, against 1.80% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here actually costs

For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 13.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.

At 247 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 77.2% on time across 4,401 flights, 10 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 10 points of difference.

The sample behind these figures is 4,403 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.

What to do with this

Booking this route

Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.32% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic.

Common questions

DFW to SAT questions

How often is DFW to SAT delayed?

About one flight in three arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 32.6% of the 4,403 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.

Which airline is most reliable on DFW to SAT?

SkyWest Airlines leads at 81.2% on time across 384 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 64.7%, a gap of 17 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 DFW to SAT?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 83.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 55.7%, 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 August delays on DFW to SAT?

August is the weakest month at 58.0% on time, compared with 79.3% in February. Across the year that is 21 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.

Where to go next

Direction matters. DFW to SAT and SAT to DFW are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures