Route profile
AUS→SEA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Austin to Seattle, 1,770 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Weather conditions are strongly associated with delays and cancellations.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 75% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,403 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
AUS → SEA arrives on time 82.4% of the time; the return trip, SEA → AUS, arrives on time 77.1% of the time, a 5.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
AUS → SEA spends 29.8 minutes on the ground on a 1,770-mile trip: 18.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at AUS and 11.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at SEA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 98% of 5,368 comparable routes.
82.3% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 82.4% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
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 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where AUS to SEA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
AUS to SEA is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 3 PM: 88.4% arrive on time, 15.6 points ahead of the 72.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.7 points.
AUS to SEA struggles most at 7 AM: 83.8% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 3.5 points behind the 87.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4 points.
AUS to SEA holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 83.5% on time to their 76.3%, a 7.2 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.3 points.
April is kinder to AUS to SEA than to routes of similar length: 90.0% on time against 79.8%, 10.2 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
Alaska Airlines does better on AUS to SEA than on its routes of similar length: 80.8% on time here, 76.4% there, 4.4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 2.8 points.
AUS to SEA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 3 PM departures | 88.4% | routes of similar length | 72.8% | +15.6 pts | 121 here, 66,990 there |
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 83.8% | routes of similar length | 87.3% | −3.5 pts | 493 here, 123,275 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 83.5% | routes of similar length | 76.3% | +7.2 pts | 922 here, 197,277 there |
| Month: April | 90.0% | routes of similar length | 79.8% | +10.2 pts | 511 here, 107,225 there |
| Airline: Alaska Airlines | 80.8% | routes of similar length | 76.4% | +4.4 pts | 3,548 here, 86,370 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 1,770 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 AUS → SEA flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
AUS → SEA cancelled 66 of 6,403 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 97. The reason filed most often was the airline, 87.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 110 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 66 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.
58 cancellations, 87.9% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
8 cancellations, 12.1% 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.
66 coded cancellations were recorded on AUS → SEA; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
33 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 6,403 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SEA after arriving from AUS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.2% | 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 1.03% of the time and diverts 0.22% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,323 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 33 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,403 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
AUS → SEA flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 89.7% of the time, against 70.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 19.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 91.8% on time from 1,350 flights
- 7 AM: 83.8% on time from 499 flights
- 8 AM: 79.4% on time from 190 flights
- 9 AM: 88.8% on time from 161 flights
- 10 AM: 87.9% on time from 142 flights
- 11 AM: 91.5% on time from 227 flights
- 12 PM: 87.7% on time from 198 flights
- 1 PM: 83.9% on time from 799 flights
- 2 PM: 81.4% on time from 608 flights
- 3 PM: 88.4% on time from 123 flights
- 4 PM: 87.0% on time from 234 flights
- 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 70.0% on time from 1,174 flights
- 7 PM: 71.8% on time from 605 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why AUS → SEA 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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for AUS → SEA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on AUS → SEA, at 41.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 89.7% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 70.6%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 3,597 | 80.8% | 1.22% | -6 min | 5.2% |
| Delta Air Lines | 2,748 | 85.1% | 0.76% | -11 min | 6.0% |
Alaska Airlines flew 56.7% of the 6,345 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 4.3 percentage points more often than Alaska Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL780 Delta Air Lines | 6:20 AM | 664 | 93.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.1%
- Feb: 86.8%
- Mar: 83.1%
- Apr: 90.0%
- May: 74.8%
- Jun: 76.0%
- Jul: 78.7%
- Aug: 84.5%
- Sep: 84.6%
- Oct: 86.8%
- Nov: 85.4%
- Dec: 80.2%
May is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 15.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 86.3% from 206 flights
- August 2023: 87.0% from 217 flights
- September 2023: 82.4% from 190 flights
- October 2023: 87.8% from 197 flights
- November 2023: 86.7% from 181 flights
- December 2023: 89.6% from 154 flights
- January 2024: 70.9% from 124 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- March 2024: 86.9% from 145 flights
- April 2024: 87.5% from 169 flights
- May 2024: 67.8% from 182 flights
- June 2024: 75.6% from 174 flights
- July 2024: 70.3% from 178 flights
- August 2024: 84.3% from 193 flights
- September 2024: 85.1% from 204 flights
- October 2024: 88.3% from 196 flights
- November 2024: 83.8% from 185 flights
- December 2024: 81.5% from 157 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (113)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (106)
- March 2025: 85.0% from 167 flights
- April 2025: 90.8% from 175 flights
- May 2025: 70.6% from 196 flights
- June 2025: 74.0% from 204 flights
- July 2025: 81.0% from 208 flights
- August 2025: 82.0% from 195 flights
- September 2025: 86.2% from 167 flights
- October 2025: 84.0% from 173 flights
- November 2025: 85.8% from 172 flights
- December 2025: 70.2% from 169 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (116)
- February 2026: 89.5% from 124 flights
- March 2026: 78.0% from 172 flights
- April 2026: 91.8% from 170 flights
- May 2026: 86.3% from 185 flights
- June 2026: 78.4% from 207 flights
- July 2026: 76.0% from 217 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.3% against 82.4% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,403 AUS → SEA 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