Route profile
MSP→SAT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Minneapolis to San Antonio, 1,097 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 50% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,743 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MSP → SAT arrives on time 77.4% of the time; the return trip, SAT → MSP, arrives on time 86.5% of the time, a 9.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MSP → SAT spends 24.3 minutes on the ground on a 1,097-mile trip: 18.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MSP and 6.2 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 MSP to SAT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MSP to SAT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 76.0% arrive on time, 11.1 points ahead of the 64.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.5 points.
MSP to SAT struggles most at 8 AM: 82.0% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 3.8 points behind the 85.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 3.9 points.
MSP to SAT holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 77.7% on time to their 73.0%, a 4.7 points lead.
July is kinder to MSP to SAT than to routes of similar length: 73.3% on time against 68.1%, 5.2 points better.
Delta Air Lines’ flights on MSP to SAT arrive on time 77.4% of the time, 2.9 points below the 80.3% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 4.1 points.
MSP to SAT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 76.0% | routes of similar length | 64.9% | +11.1 pts | 200 here, 75,730 there |
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 82.0% | routes of similar length | 85.8% | −3.8 pts | 417 here, 186,065 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 77.7% | routes of similar length | 73.0% | +4.7 pts | 394 here, 411,834 there |
| Month: July | 73.3% | routes of similar length | 68.1% | +5.2 pts | 333 here, 302,739 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 77.4% | routes of similar length | 80.3% | −2.9 pts | 2,716 here, 463,803 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 1,097 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
46 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 2,743 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SAT after arriving from MSP.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.7% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.9% | 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 0.73% of the time and diverts 0.26% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,716 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 46 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,743 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MSP → SAT flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 86.0% of the time, against 70.2% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 15.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 82.0% on time from 418 flights
- 9 AM: 85.2% on time from 497 flights
- 10 AM: 88.7% on time from 152 flights
- 11 AM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 75.4% on time from 516 flights
- 3 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 73.0% on time from 591 flights
- 7 PM: 66.4% on time from 120 flights
- 8 PM: 64.6% on time from 210 flights
- 9 PM: 76.0% on time from 200 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why MSP → SAT runs late
July 2023 – July 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for MSP → 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 | 2,743 | 77.4% | 0.73% | -5 min | 7.8% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 5.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.5%
- Feb: 84.2%
- Mar: 75.9%
- Apr: 73.7%
- May: 76.8%
- Jun: 68.4%
- Jul: 73.3%
- Aug: 74.0%
- Sep: 83.1%
- Oct: 85.9%
- Nov: 85.4%
- Dec: 75.7%
June is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 17.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.1% against 78.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,743 MSP → 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