Route profile
JFK→SAT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New York to San Antonio, 1,587 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 62% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,600 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
JFK → SAT arrives on time 82.7% of the time; the return trip, SAT → JFK, arrives on time 74.3% of the time, an 8.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
JFK → SAT spends 31.8 minutes on the ground on a 1,587-mile trip: 25.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at JFK and 6.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at SAT.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route holds up about the same all year, a steadier seasonal pattern than 95% of 3,357 comparable routes.
85.8% on time in its best month (March) against 76.0% in its worst (April).
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 3,357 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where JFK to SAT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
JFK to SAT struggles most at 9 AM: 72.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10.3 points behind the 82.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12 points.
JFK to SAT holds up on Wednesdays better than routes of similar length do: 88.7% on time to their 80.2%, a 8.5 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.9 points.
August is kinder to JFK to SAT than to routes of similar length: 85.6% on time against 76.2%, 9.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.1 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on JFK to SAT than on its routes of similar length: 86.3% on time here, 82.6% there, 3.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.8 points.
JFK to SAT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 72.3% | routes of similar length | 82.6% | −10.3 pts | 310 here, 98,398 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 88.7% | routes of similar length | 80.2% | +8.5 pts | 222 here, 222,307 there |
| Month: August | 85.6% | routes of similar length | 76.2% | +9.4 pts | 153 here, 136,772 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 86.3% | routes of similar length | 82.6% | +3.7 pts | 1,100 here, 310,820 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 1,587 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
33 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 1,600 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SAT after arriving from JFK.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.9% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.8% | 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 1.81% of the time and diverts 0.19% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,568 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 1,600 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
JFK → SAT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.4% of the time, against 71.7% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 16.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 91.1% on time from 279 flights
- 8 AM: 86.6% on time from 437 flights
- 9 AM: 72.3% on time from 315 flights
- 10 AM: 83.7% on time from 315 flights
- 11 AM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why JFK → SAT runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for JFK → 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,124 | 86.3% | 1.96% | -13 min | 4.9% |
| JetBlue | 476 | 74.1% | 1.47% | -5 min | 8.3% |
Delta Air Lines flew 70.3% of the 1,600 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 12.2 percentage points more often than JetBlue on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 11.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.3%
- Feb: no data
- Mar: 85.8%
- Apr: 76.0%
- May: 82.9%
- Jun: 83.6%
- Jul: 78.9%
- Aug: 85.6%
- Sep: 85.2%
- Oct: 84.0%
- Nov: no data
- Dec: 82.5%
April is historically the weakest month and March the strongest, a spread of 9.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 88.2% against 84.8% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,600 JFK → 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