Route profile
HOU→SAT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Houston to San Antonio, 192 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 78% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,737 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
HOU → SAT arrives on time 79.4% of the time; the return trip, SAT → HOU, arrives on time 79.4% of the time.
HOU → SAT spends 17.4 minutes on the ground on a 192-mile trip: 13.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at HOU and 3.9 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 HOU to SAT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
HOU to SAT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 83.3% arrive on time, 16.4 points ahead of the 66.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.7 points.
HOU to SAT struggles most at 10 PM: 61.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9 points behind the 70.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
August is kinder to HOU to SAT than to routes of similar length: 86.0% on time against 77.0%, 9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.5 points.
In June, HOU to SAT runs 7 points below routes of similar length, 66.8% on time to 73.8%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.9 points.
HOU to SAT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 83.3% | routes of similar length | 66.9% | +16.4 pts | 209 here, 22,768 there |
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 61.6% | routes of similar length | 70.6% | −9.0 pts | 425 here, 13,644 there |
| Month: August | 86.0% | routes of similar length | 77.0% | +9.0 pts | 415 here, 32,517 there |
| Month: June | 66.8% | routes of similar length | 73.8% | −7.0 pts | 355 here, 31,699 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 192 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
37 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 4,737 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SAT after arriving from HOU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 37% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.0% | 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 0.49% of the time and diverts 0.06% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,711 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 37 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,737 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
HOU → SAT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.8% of the time, against 66.5% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 25.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 92.1% on time from 749 flights
- 9 AM: 92.0% on time from 150 flights
- 10 AM: 84.1% on time from 467 flights
- 11 AM: 86.6% on time from 262 flights
- 12 PM: 89.5% on time from 124 flights
- 1 PM: 87.8% on time from 191 flights
- 2 PM: 69.5% on time from 385 flights
- 3 PM: 69.8% on time from 203 flights
- 4 PM: 79.0% on time from 138 flights
- 5 PM: 83.2% on time from 244 flights
- 6 PM: 83.3% on time from 213 flights
- 7 PM: 61.7% on time from 176 flights
- 8 PM: 76.8% on time from 458 flights
- 9 PM: 71.3% on time from 429 flights
- 10 PM: 61.6% on time from 429 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why HOU → 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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for HOU → SAT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on HOU → SAT, at 55.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 91.8% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 66.5%.
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 | 4,737 | 79.4% | 0.49% | -6 min | 5.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.1%
- Feb: 84.2%
- Mar: 75.2%
- Apr: 77.8%
- May: 70.0%
- Jun: 66.8%
- Jul: 69.5%
- Aug: 86.0%
- Sep: 89.1%
- Oct: 84.9%
- Nov: 87.3%
- Dec: 82.1%
June is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 22.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 78.5% from 144 flights
- August 2023: 85.0% from 147 flights
- September 2023: 82.5% from 143 flights
- October 2023: 83.9% from 151 flights
- November 2023: 89.0% from 147 flights
- December 2023: 82.7% from 150 flights
- January 2024: 73.8% from 151 flights
- February 2024: 90.1% from 141 flights
- March 2024: 78.5% from 150 flights
- April 2024: 76.2% from 143 flights
- May 2024: 62.8% from 148 flights
- June 2024: 68.4% from 136 flights
- July 2024: 55.3% from 138 flights
- August 2024: 88.1% from 126 flights
- September 2024: 93.4% from 121 flights
- October 2024: 86.8% from 130 flights
- November 2024: 91.7% from 121 flights
- December 2024: 78.2% from 124 flights
- January 2025: 87.4% from 127 flights
- February 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- March 2025: 79.7% from 133 flights
- April 2025: 80.5% from 128 flights
- May 2025: 78.0% from 132 flights
- June 2025: 72.1% from 129 flights
- July 2025: 74.0% from 131 flights
- August 2025: 85.2% from 143 flights
- September 2025: 92.2% from 141 flights
- October 2025: 84.3% from 140 flights
- November 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- December 2025: 85.2% from 122 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (97)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (84)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (101)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (98)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (103)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (91)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (91)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.1% against 82.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,737 HOU → 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