Route profile
EWR→SAT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Newark to San Antonio, 1,569 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 86% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,057 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
EWR → SAT arrives on time 84.8% of the time; the return trip, SAT → EWR, arrives on time 84.3% of the time.
EWR → SAT spends 26.2 minutes on the ground on a 1,569-mile trip: 22.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at EWR and 4.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at SAT.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Unlike most, it barely matters what time you fly this route, a steadier spread than 99% of 4,023 comparable routes.
86.3% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 83.0% for 9 AM–12 PM, a narrow gap either way.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where EWR to SAT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
EWR to SAT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 12 PM: 85.8% arrive on time, 8 points ahead of the 77.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.4 points.
EWR to SAT struggles most at 9 AM: 76.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 6.3 points behind the 82.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8 points.
EWR to SAT holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 86.5% on time to their 77.0%, a 9.5 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 9.3 points.
February is kinder to EWR to SAT than to routes of similar length: 91.0% on time against 81.6%, 9.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.6 points.
United Airlines does better on EWR to SAT than on its routes of similar length: 85.0% on time here, 80.6% there, 4.4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.1 points.
EWR to SAT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 85.8% | routes of similar length | 77.8% | +8.0 pts | 698 here, 93,861 there |
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 76.3% | routes of similar length | 82.6% | −6.3 pts | 156 here, 99,707 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 86.5% | routes of similar length | 77.0% | +9.5 pts | 310 here, 240,100 there |
| Month: February | 91.0% | routes of similar length | 81.6% | +9.4 pts | 134 here, 109,956 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 85.0% | routes of similar length | 80.6% | +4.4 pts | 1,821 here, 365,079 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 1,569 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
28 min late
against a median of 12 min early
Percentiles over 2,057 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SAT after arriving from EWR.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 27% | High risk |
| 45 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 9.4% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.1% | 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 0.88% of the time and diverts 0.24% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,034 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 28 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,057 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
EWR → SAT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 86.3% of the time, against 83.0% for 9 AM–12 PM departures, a gap of 3.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 86.2% on time from 220 flights
- 8 AM: 85.1% on time from 392 flights
- 9 AM: 76.3% on time from 157 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 85.5% on time from 333 flights
- 12 PM: 85.8% on time from 707 flights
- 1 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why EWR → SAT 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 EWR → SAT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on EWR → SAT, at 37.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, though departure time makes little difference here: the best and worst windows are 3 points apart.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,837 | 85.0% | 0.65% | -12 min | 5.1% |
| Spirit Airlines | 220 | 83.6% | 2.73% | -10 min | 5.6% |
United Airlines flew 89.3% of the 2,057 flights listed. Spirit Airlines cancelled 2.73% of its flights here against 0.65% for United Airlines.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 9.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.3%
- Feb: 91.0%
- Mar: 87.2%
- Apr: 86.2%
- May: 81.0%
- Jun: 80.5%
- Jul: 73.1%
- Aug: 79.9%
- Sep: 90.8%
- Oct: 87.7%
- Nov: 91.8%
- Dec: 87.6%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 18.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 86.8% against 83.2% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,057 EWR → 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