Route profile
ATL→SAT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Atlanta to San Antonio, 874 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 65% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,420 flights. How this is calculated
ATL → SAT arrives on time 79.6% of the time; the return trip, SAT → ATL, arrives on time 84.8% of the time, a 5.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ATL → SAT spends 21.5 minutes on the ground on an 874-mile trip: 15.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ATL and 5.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at SAT.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where ATL to SAT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
ATL to SAT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 10 PM: 78.6% arrive on time, 13.2 points ahead of the 65.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7 points.
ATL to SAT holds up on Wednesdays better than routes of similar length do: 84.5% on time to their 80.2%, a 4.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 3.7 points.
October is kinder to ATL to SAT than to routes of similar length: 89.9% on time against 83.0%, 6.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.9 points.
In May, ATL to SAT runs 4.2 points below routes of similar length, 69.9% on time to 74.1%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.4 points.
ATL to SAT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 78.6% | routes of similar length | 65.4% | +13.2 pts | 645 here, 39,041 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 84.5% | routes of similar length | 80.2% | +4.3 pts | 1,277 here, 371,958 there |
| Month: October | 89.9% | routes of similar length | 83.0% | +6.9 pts | 811 here, 227,370 there |
| Month: May | 69.9% | routes of similar length | 74.1% | −4.2 pts | 814 here, 227,799 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 874 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why ATL → SAT flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
ATL → SAT cancelled 103 of 9,420 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 91. The reason filed most often was the airline, 64.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 143 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 103 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
66 cancellations, 64.1% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
37 cancellations, 35.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
103 coded cancellations were recorded on ATL → SAT; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
38 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 9,420 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SAT after arriving from ATL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.1% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.09% of the time and diverts 0.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,301 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 38 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,420 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ATL → SAT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.8% of the time, against 70.3% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 18.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 88.9% on time from 1,491 flights
- 9 AM: 85.6% on time from 736 flights
- 10 AM: 86.5% on time from 261 flights
- 11 AM: 82.6% on time from 857 flights
- 12 PM: 83.5% on time from 323 flights
- 1 PM: 79.4% on time from 682 flights
- 2 PM: 80.3% on time from 754 flights
- 3 PM: 74.0% on time from 921 flights
- 4 PM: 81.4% on time from 303 flights
- 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 72.4% on time from 556 flights
- 7 PM: 71.2% on time from 351 flights
- 8 PM: 68.4% on time from 796 flights
- 9 PM: 78.2% on time from 192 flights
- 10 PM: 78.6% on time from 658 flights
- 11 PM: 72.9% on time from 396 flights
Why ATL → SAT runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for ATL → SAT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 7,466 | 80.3% | 1.25% | -5 min | 5.8% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,679 | 78.3% | 0.24% | -5 min | 5.4% |
Delta Air Lines flew 81.6% of the 9,145 flights listed. Delta Air Lines cancelled 1.25% of its flights here against 0.24% for Southwest Airlines.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 2.0 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL1676 (8:10 AM) arrived on time 89.1% of the time, 14.5 points more often than DL2893 (8:05 PM) at 74.6%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.4 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 79.7%
- Feb: 85.2%
- Mar: 80.2%
- Apr: 78.6%
- May: 69.9%
- Jun: 76.8%
- Jul: 67.6%
- Aug: 80.8%
- Sep: 84.7%
- Oct: 89.9%
- Nov: 85.9%
- Dec: 81.3%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 22.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 74.9% from 271 flights
- August 2023: 75.2% from 270 flights
- September 2023: 86.1% from 252 flights
- October 2023: 92.4% from 276 flights
- November 2023: 86.0% from 286 flights
- December 2023: 87.1% from 287 flights
- January 2024: 81.6% from 231 flights
- February 2024: 88.4% from 207 flights
- March 2024: 80.2% from 237 flights
- April 2024: 77.9% from 253 flights
- May 2024: 68.3% from 269 flights
- June 2024: 81.2% from 267 flights
- July 2024: 58.6% from 272 flights
- August 2024: 85.3% from 260 flights
- September 2024: 81.7% from 247 flights
- October 2024: 91.9% from 261 flights
- November 2024: 91.0% from 236 flights
- December 2024: 77.1% from 246 flights
- January 2025: 76.9% from 205 flights
- February 2025: 80.2% from 197 flights
- March 2025: 78.9% from 248 flights
- April 2025: 72.9% from 269 flights
- May 2025: 67.2% from 300 flights
- June 2025: 66.0% from 296 flights
- July 2025: 68.5% from 277 flights
- August 2025: 82.1% from 270 flights
- September 2025: 86.2% from 260 flights
- October 2025: 85.5% from 275 flights
- November 2025: 80.9% from 250 flights
- December 2025: 78.7% from 250 flights
- January 2026: 80.4% from 217 flights
- February 2026: 86.7% from 221 flights
- March 2026: 81.4% from 256 flights
- April 2026: 85.4% from 248 flights
- May 2026: 74.9% from 259 flights
- June 2026: 85.2% from 244 flights
- July 2026: 68.2% from 250 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.3% against 77.7% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,420 ATL → SAT flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed