Route profile
AUS→OAK
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Austin to Oakland, 1,497 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 44% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,096 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
AUS → OAK arrives on time 68.9% of the time; the return trip, OAK → AUS, arrives on time 83.6% of the time, a 14.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
AUS → OAK spends 18.7 minutes on the ground on a 1,497-mile trip: 13.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at AUS and 5.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at OAK.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Which day you fly matters unusually much here, a wider weekday spread than 99% of 4,467 comparable routes.
78.1% on time on a typical Wednesday, against 57.7% on a Sunday.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where AUS to OAK differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
Sunday is the day AUS to OAK slips furthest against routes of similar length, 57.7% on time where they average 75.6%, 17.9 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 17.1 points.
In July, AUS to OAK runs 8.9 points below routes of similar length, 61.0% on time to 69.9%. Against all other routes the gap is 8.7 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on AUS to OAK arrive on time 68.9% of the time, 6.6 points below the 75.5% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 8.5 points.
AUS to OAK against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday: Sunday | 57.7% | routes of similar length | 75.6% | −17.9 pts | 163 here, 213,852 there |
| Month: July | 61.0% | routes of similar length | 69.9% | −8.9 pts | 123 here, 168,965 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 68.9% | routes of similar length | 75.5% | −6.6 pts | 1,095 here, 304,408 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 1,497 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
43 min late
against a median of 3 min late
Percentiles over 1,096 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at OAK after arriving from AUS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 54% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 30% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 6.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.4% | 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 0.00% of the time and diverts 0.09% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,095 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 43 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,096 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why AUS → OAK runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for AUS → OAK. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on AUS → OAK, at 58.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 1,096 | 68.9% | 0.00% | 3 min | 6.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 20.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 61.6% against 77.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 15.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,096 AUS → OAK 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