Route profile
SAT→ATL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Antonio to Atlanta, 874 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 9,436 flights. How this is calculated
SAT → ATL arrives on time 84.8% of the time; the return trip, ATL → SAT, arrives on time 79.6% of the time, a 5.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SAT → ATL spends 23.7 minutes on the ground on an 874-mile trip: 13.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SAT and 10.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at ATL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 92% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Delta Air Lines (85.8% on time) and Southwest Airlines (84.2%) are close together here.
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 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SAT to ATL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SAT to ATL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 79.9% arrive on time, 12.1 points ahead of the 67.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
SAT to ATL holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 87.8% on time to their 78.1%, a 9.7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.7 points.
August is kinder to SAT to ATL than to routes of similar length: 86.1% on time against 75.1%, 11 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.6 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on SAT to ATL than on its routes of similar length: 84.2% on time here, 76.4% there, 7.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.8 points.
SAT to ATL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 79.9% | routes of similar length | 67.8% | +12.1 pts | 673 here, 163,343 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 87.8% | routes of similar length | 78.1% | +9.7 pts | 1,135 here, 357,442 there |
| Month: August | 86.1% | routes of similar length | 75.1% | +11.0 pts | 770 here, 219,543 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 84.2% | routes of similar length | 76.4% | +7.8 pts | 1,680 here, 750,124 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 874 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 SAT → ATL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SAT → ATL cancelled 112 of 9,436 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 84. The reason filed most often was the airline, 61.6% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 137 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 112 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
69 cancellations, 61.6% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
43 cancellations, 38.4% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
0 cancellations, 0.0% 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. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
112 coded cancellations were recorded on SAT → ATL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
28 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 9,436 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ATL after arriving from SAT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 30% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 9.2% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.9% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 3.1% | 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 1.19% of the time and diverts 0.39% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,287 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 28 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,436 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SAT → ATL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.6% of the time, against 76.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 15.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 92.7% on time from 1,230 flights
- 6 AM: 93.1% on time from 982 flights
- 7 AM: 92.0% on time from 747 flights
- 8 AM: 92.5% on time from 403 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 89.0% on time from 778 flights
- 11 AM: 88.2% on time from 453 flights
- 12 PM: 81.5% on time from 839 flights
- 1 PM: 79.7% on time from 725 flights
- 2 PM: 77.5% on time from 594 flights
- 3 PM: 79.9% on time from 244 flights
- 4 PM: 73.8% on time from 756 flights
- 5 PM: 79.9% on time from 682 flights
- 6 PM: 76.6% on time from 870 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SAT → ATL 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 SAT → ATL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SAT → ATL, at 41.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.6% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 76.9%.
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 | 7,464 | 85.8% | 1.31% | -8 min | 4.7% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,697 | 84.2% | 0.35% | -6 min | 4.6% |
Delta Air Lines flew 81.5% of the 9,161 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
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 Sunday the least, a gap of 7.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.8%
- Feb: 87.1%
- Mar: 84.4%
- Apr: 84.8%
- May: 75.1%
- Jun: 78.6%
- Jul: 76.4%
- Aug: 86.1%
- Sep: 92.6%
- Oct: 91.1%
- Nov: 92.0%
- Dec: 88.1%
May is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 17.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 84.7% from 271 flights
- August 2023: 80.8% from 255 flights
- September 2023: 92.4% from 250 flights
- October 2023: 91.3% from 276 flights
- November 2023: 92.3% from 286 flights
- December 2023: 93.7% from 287 flights
- January 2024: 84.6% from 223 flights
- February 2024: 87.9% from 199 flights
- March 2024: 86.8% from 235 flights
- April 2024: 85.4% from 262 flights
- May 2024: 74.3% from 283 flights
- June 2024: 83.5% from 268 flights
- July 2024: 71.8% from 272 flights
- August 2024: 91.1% from 260 flights
- September 2024: 90.7% from 247 flights
- October 2024: 93.1% from 262 flights
- November 2024: 91.9% from 236 flights
- December 2024: 82.9% from 246 flights
- January 2025: 85.3% from 222 flights
- February 2025: 85.0% from 206 flights
- March 2025: 83.5% from 249 flights
- April 2025: 80.7% from 269 flights
- May 2025: 71.7% from 300 flights
- June 2025: 69.5% from 296 flights
- July 2025: 76.7% from 277 flights
- August 2025: 86.3% from 269 flights
- September 2025: 94.6% from 260 flights
- October 2025: 89.1% from 275 flights
- November 2025: 91.8% from 250 flights
- December 2025: 86.9% from 251 flights
- January 2026: 84.5% from 216 flights
- February 2026: 88.4% from 221 flights
- March 2026: 82.9% from 256 flights
- April 2026: 88.6% from 248 flights
- May 2026: 80.0% from 259 flights
- June 2026: 84.0% from 244 flights
- July 2026: 72.1% from 250 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.8% against 83.0% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,436 SAT → ATL 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