Route profile
FLL→SAT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Fort Lauderdale to San Antonio, 1,145 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – May 2026
Better than 11% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 952 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
FLL → SAT arrives on time 69.6% of the time; the return trip, SAT → FLL, arrives on time 84.7% of the time, a 15.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
FLL → SAT spends 21.1 minutes on the ground on a 1,145-mile trip: 16.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at FLL and 5.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at SAT.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – May 2026
What stands out
Which day you fly matters unusually much here, a wider weekday spread than 92% of 4,467 comparable routes.
75.7% on time on a typical Thursday, against 61.4% on a Saturday.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – May 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 FLL to SAT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – May 2026.
Saturday is the day FLL to SAT slips furthest against routes of similar length, 61.4% on time where they average 77.0%, 15.6 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 17.7 points.
FLL to SAT against comparable routes
July 2023 – May 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday: Saturday | 61.4% | routes of similar length | 77.0% | −15.6 pts | 140 here, 327,706 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 1,145 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 – May 2026
65 min late
against a median of 4 min early
FLL → SAT has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 4 min early, but the worst tenth are 69 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.
Percentiles over 952 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SAT after arriving from FLL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 43% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 30% | Likely to miss |
| 60 min | 21% | High risk |
| 90 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.5% | Some 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 1.89% of the time and diverts 0.42% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 930 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 65 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 952 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
FLL → SAT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.1% of the time, against 59.8% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 29.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 88.1% on time from 143 flights
- 8 AM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 72.7% on time from 131 flights
- 5 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 58.5% on time from 122 flights
- 10 PM: 61.9% on time from 134 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why FLL → SAT runs late
July 2023 – May 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 FLL → SAT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit Airlines | 907 | 70.7% | 1.98% | -5 min | 11.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Thursday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 14.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – May 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-05 to 2026-04), on-time arrivals averaged 75.7% against 71.3% in the 12 months before — improving by 4.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 952 FLL → SAT flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – May 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