Route profile
ORD→SAT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Chicago to San Antonio, 1,041 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 27% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,145 flights. How this is calculated
ORD → SAT arrives on time 74.4% of the time; the return trip, SAT → ORD, arrives on time 82.3% of the time, an 8.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ORD → SAT spends 30.2 minutes on the ground on a 1,041-mile trip: 25.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ORD and 4.9 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 ORD to SAT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
ORD to SAT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 80.3% arrive on time, 13.3 points ahead of the 67.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.7 points.
ORD to SAT struggles most at 9 AM: 81.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 2.3 points behind the 83.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 3.2 points.
Wednesday is the day ORD to SAT slips furthest against routes of similar length, 75.1% on time where they average 79.4%, 4.3 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 5.7 points.
In April, ORD to SAT runs 9.7 points below routes of similar length, 69.4% on time to 79.1%. Against all other routes the gap is 10.5 points.
United Airlines’ flights on ORD to SAT arrive on time 75.4% of the time, 5.1 points below the 80.5% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 4.5 points.
ORD to SAT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 80.3% | routes of similar length | 67.0% | +13.3 pts | 152 here, 177,901 there |
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 81.1% | routes of similar length | 83.4% | −2.3 pts | 1,505 here, 139,257 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 75.1% | routes of similar length | 79.4% | −4.3 pts | 704 here, 388,564 there |
| Month: April | 69.4% | routes of similar length | 79.1% | −9.7 pts | 454 here, 239,800 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 75.4% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | −5.1 pts | 2,354 here, 399,761 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 1,041 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.
Why ORD → SAT flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
ORD → SAT cancelled 69 of 5,145 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 75. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 68.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 109 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 69 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
47 cancellations, 68.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
14 cancellations, 20.3% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
8 cancellations, 11.6% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
69 coded cancellations were recorded on ORD → SAT; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
58 min late
against a median of 5 min early
ORD → SAT has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 5 min early, but the worst tenth are 63 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 5,145 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SAT after arriving from ORD.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 40% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.7% | 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 1.34% of the time and diverts 0.23% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,064 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 58 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,145 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ORD → SAT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.9% of the time, against 68.1% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 23.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 91.9% on time from 150 flights
- 9 AM: 81.1% on time from 1,515 flights
- 10 AM: 79.5% on time from 430 flights
- 11 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 78.7% on time from 436 flights
- 2 PM: 72.0% on time from 324 flights
- 3 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 80.3% on time from 154 flights
- 7 PM: 67.2% on time from 652 flights
- 8 PM: 67.0% on time from 1,209 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why ORD → 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 ORD → SAT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on ORD → SAT, at 46.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 91.9% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 68.1%.
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 | 2,377 | 75.4% | 0.84% | -4 min | 8.8% |
| American Airlines | 1,945 | 71.3% | 1.59% | -4 min | 11.6% |
| Envoy Air | 437 | 75.8% | 2.06% | -8 min | 8.9% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 272 | 82.3% | 1.84% | -9 min | 6.4% |
United Airlines flew 47.2% of the 5,031 flights listed. Envoy Air cancelled 2.06% of its flights here against 0.84% for United Airlines.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 11.0 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA431 American Airlines | 8:50 PM | 815 | 63.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 5.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 67.5%
- Feb: 81.0%
- Mar: 75.1%
- Apr: 69.4%
- May: 69.2%
- Jun: 66.4%
- Jul: 63.6%
- Aug: 75.3%
- Sep: 82.6%
- Oct: 85.8%
- Nov: 82.6%
- Dec: 79.9%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 22.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (115)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (119)
- September 2023: 82.9% from 123 flights
- October 2023: 80.7% from 135 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (115)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (113)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (104)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- May 2024: 59.7% from 122 flights
- June 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (118)
- August 2024: 74.2% from 125 flights
- September 2024: 86.8% from 136 flights
- October 2024: 93.4% from 137 flights
- November 2024: too few flights to score (113)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (109)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (100)
- March 2025: 81.3% from 136 flights
- April 2025: 70.7% from 168 flights
- May 2025: 75.0% from 171 flights
- June 2025: 66.7% from 168 flights
- July 2025: 68.5% from 167 flights
- August 2025: 74.7% from 155 flights
- September 2025: 78.7% from 151 flights
- October 2025: 83.8% from 179 flights
- November 2025: 83.7% from 160 flights
- December 2025: 74.7% from 160 flights
- January 2026: 70.3% from 143 flights
- February 2026: 82.5% from 144 flights
- March 2026: 74.0% from 179 flights
- April 2026: 67.8% from 175 flights
- May 2026: 70.1% from 179 flights
- June 2026: 67.1% from 174 flights
- July 2026: 63.8% from 178 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 74.1% against 76.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,145 ORD → 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