Carrier route record
UAORD→SAT
United Airlines · Chicago to San Antonio
- Flights
- 889
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 44%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on ORD to SAT sits in the middle of the pack with a C+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 889 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Envoy Air, flew 410 at 76.3% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate United on ORD to SAT from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
74.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 880 completed flights
Avg delay
73 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.90%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
72.7%
Every carrier on ORD to SAT, 2,001 flights
These figures cover 889 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
United against every carrier on ORD to SAT
United flew 889 of the 2,001 flights on ORD to SAT, about 44% of it. Its 74.0% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 72.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number four of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 82.3% to American at 64.3%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Envoy Air arrives on time 76.3% of the time; American Airlines manages 64.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 497 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 101 | 82.3% | 62 min | 3.96% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 104 | 79.0% | 61 min | 3.85% | B− |
| Envoy Air | 410 | 76.3% | 62 min | 2.44% | B |
| United Airlines (this page) | 889 | 74.0% | 73 min | 0.90% | C+ |
| American Airlines | 497 | 64.3% | 86 min | 1.81% | D |
The spread between Envoy and American is 12 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 12 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
United flight numbers on ORD to SAT
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Departure window
When United runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am358 flights82.9%
- 11am–2pm168 flights76.0%
- 2pm–5pm9 flights—
- 5pm–8pm40 flights67.5%
- 8pm–5am314 flights64.3%
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.3% on time, against 82.9% for the 8am–11am 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. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 358 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on ORD to SAT through the year
October is the best month on the calendar at 88.0% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. August was the busiest month here, with 91 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 68.7%, a spread of 14 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late United on ORD to SAT runs when it is late
United on ORD to SAT often beats the schedule: 282 of 880 completed flights, 32%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 229 late arrivals split 61 under half an hour, 76 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 92 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early282 flights32.0%
- Within 15 min369 flights41.9%
- 15–29 min late61 flights6.9%
- 30–59 min late76 flights8.6%
- 1–2 hours late47 flights5.3%
- 2+ hours late45 flights5.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 880 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
64 of 252 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 25% of them. 41 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for United on ORD to SAT
The latest arrival of the period was on 10 March 2026, 7 hours 28 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as extreme weather. Three of the five worst days fell in March 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 10 March 2026 | 7 hours 28 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 19 May 2026 | 4 hours 43 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 26 March 2026 | 4 hours 29 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 6 March 2026 | 4 hours 26 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 17 June 2026 | 4 hours 8 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 52% of the 17,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
52% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 17,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 16,701 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 82.9% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 0.90% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.11%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
10.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 1,041 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 78.9% on time across 889 flights, 5 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 5 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 889 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking United on ORD to SAT
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 889 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 74.0% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 880 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- ORD to SAT, every carrier
- United on SAT to ORD, the return leg
- Republic Airways on ORD to SAT82.3%
- SkyWest Airlines on ORD to SAT79.0%
- Envoy Air on ORD to SAT76.3%
- American Airlines on ORD to SAT64.3%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) delay statistics
- San Antonio International (SAT) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
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.