Route reliability record
MSP→AUS
Minneapolis to Austin
- Flights
- 1,685
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,042 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 1,685 MSP to AUS flights, with a median arrival 8 minutes early.
Best time to fly MSP to AUS: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 85.8% of the time and Wednesday flights 87.1%, against 80.0% 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
80.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,673 completed flights
Avg delay
57 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.71%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
78.7% on time across 1,023 flights
These figures cover 1,685 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on MSP to AUS
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 | 85.4% | 69 min | 0.31% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,023 | 78.7% | 58 min | 0.88% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 339 | 78.6% | 45 min | 0.59% | B+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on MSP to AUS
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.
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
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 12 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am354 flights85.8%
- 8am–11am442 flights83.1%
- 11am–2pm188 flights76.3%
- 2pm–5pm318 flights75.1%
- 5pm–8pm182 flights73.9%
- 8pm–5am201 flights79.3%
Scale runs 65% to 90%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 85.8% of the time, against 73.9% for the evening window. That is 12 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 442 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MSP to AUS 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 MSP to AUS, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 85.8% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 73.9%, a wide gap of 11.9 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am85.8%
- 8–11am83.1%
- 11am–2pm76.3%
- 2–5pm75.1%
- 5–8pm73.9%
- 8pm–5am79.3%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 20 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.
July is the worst month at 69.2% on time, 20 points below February, the best at 88.7%. 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 159 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 87.1% on time and Friday the weakest at 75.1%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 52% of the 19,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 52%Carrier
- 23%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 52%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 9,930 of the 19,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 18,964 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.71%, 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
7.0% 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 about 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 78.0% on time across 1,684 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 1,685 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 AUS 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. February runs 88.7% on time and July 69.2%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,673 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MSP to AUS questions
How often is MSP to AUS delayed?
About 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 20.0% of the 1,685 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
How reliable is MSP to AUS compared with the rest of the country?
80.0% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 3 points in its favour. That is worth a B+ on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on MSP to AUS?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 85.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 73.9%, 12 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 July delays on MSP to AUS?
July is the weakest month at 69.2% on time, compared with 88.7% in February. Across the year that is 20 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
- AUS to MSP — the return legseparate record
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- Austin-Bergstrom International (AUS) delay statistics
- SkyWest Airlines on MSP to AUS85.4%
- Delta Air Lines on MSP to AUS78.7%
- Southwest Airlines on MSP to AUS78.6%
- MSP to ORD, a related route70.0%
- DEN to AUS, a related route76.2%
- MSP to DEN, a related route77.8%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record85.4%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record78.7%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record78.6%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. MSP to AUS and AUS to MSP are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed MSP to AUS’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.