Route profile
SAT→BWI
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Antonio to Baltimore, 1,407 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 2,567 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SAT → BWI arrives on time 82.8% of the time; the return trip, BWI → SAT, arrives on time 73.2% of the time, a 9.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SAT → BWI spends 17.2 minutes on the ground on a 1,407-mile trip: 11.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SAT and 6.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at BWI.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where SAT to BWI differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SAT to BWI struggles most at 5 PM: 58.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10.9 points behind the 69.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.4 points.
SAT to BWI is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 AM: 97.7% arrive on time, 7.2 points ahead of the 90.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.9 points.
SAT to BWI holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 83.0% on time to their 77.1%, a 5.9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5.8 points.
August is kinder to SAT to BWI than to routes of similar length: 86.1% on time against 76.5%, 9.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.6 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on SAT to BWI than on its routes of similar length: 83.5% on time here, 75.8% there, 7.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
SAT to BWI against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 58.4% | routes of similar length | 69.3% | −10.9 pts | 202 here, 105,901 there |
| Hour: 6 AM departures | 97.7% | routes of similar length | 90.5% | +7.2 pts | 221 here, 124,304 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 83.0% | routes of similar length | 77.1% | +5.9 pts | 407 here, 251,137 there |
| Month: August | 86.1% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | +9.6 pts | 244 here, 140,372 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 83.5% | routes of similar length | 75.8% | +7.7 pts | 2,395 here, 379,379 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 1,407 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
30 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 2,567 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BWI after arriving from SAT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 36% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.7% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.4% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.7% | 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 1.25% of the time and diverts 0.31% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,527 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 30 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,567 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SAT → BWI flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 95.8% of the time, against 67.2% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 28.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 95.5% on time from 828 flights
- 6 AM: 97.7% on time from 225 flights
- 7 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 83.5% on time from 161 flights
- 12 PM to 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 73.8% on time from 309 flights
- 4 PM: 66.7% on time from 466 flights
- 5 PM: 58.4% on time from 204 flights
- 6 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SAT → BWI 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 → BWI. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SAT → BWI, at 49.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 95.8% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 67.2%.
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 | 2,431 | 83.5% | 1.23% | -5 min | 4.3% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 5.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 87.5%
- Feb: 90.3%
- Mar: 79.8%
- Apr: 84.8%
- May: 82.6%
- Jun: 74.2%
- Jul: 71.7%
- Aug: 86.1%
- Sep: 89.3%
- Oct: 84.9%
- Nov: 84.8%
- Dec: 86.7%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 18.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.2% against 84.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,567 SAT → BWI 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