Route profile
SAT→DEN
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Antonio to Denver, 794 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 75% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,602 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SAT → DEN arrives on time 82.3% of the time; the return trip, DEN → SAT, arrives on time 76.5% of the time, a 5.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SAT → DEN spends 21.3 minutes on the ground on a 794-mile trip: 12.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SAT and 9.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at DEN.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 95% of 4,467 comparable routes.
84.5% on time on the best day (Wednesday) against 80.4% on the worst (Friday).
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SAT to DEN differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SAT to DEN is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 81.0% arrive on time, 13.4 points ahead of the 67.6% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.5 points.
SAT to DEN struggles most at 8 AM: 82.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 3.8 points behind the 86.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 3.3 points.
SAT to DEN holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 81.5% on time to their 74.7%, a 6.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.7 points.
July is kinder to SAT to DEN than to routes of similar length: 76.2% on time against 68.8%, 7.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.5 points.
United Airlines does better on SAT to DEN than on its routes of similar length: 84.3% on time here, 79.2% there, 5.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.4 points.
SAT to DEN against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 81.0% | routes of similar length | 67.6% | +13.4 pts | 121 here, 64,726 there |
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 82.6% | routes of similar length | 86.4% | −3.8 pts | 826 here, 151,245 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 81.5% | routes of similar length | 74.7% | +6.8 pts | 1,398 here, 323,769 there |
| Month: July | 76.2% | routes of similar length | 68.8% | +7.4 pts | 1,123 here, 246,154 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 84.3% | routes of similar length | 79.2% | +5.1 pts | 4,063 here, 377,629 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 794 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 → DEN flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SAT → DEN cancelled 57 of 9,602 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 168. The reason filed most often was the airline, 47.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 356 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 57 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.
27 cancellations, 47.4% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
22 cancellations, 38.6% 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, 14.0% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
57 coded cancellations were recorded on SAT → DEN; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
35 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 9,602 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DEN after arriving from SAT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.0% | 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 0.59% of the time and diverts 0.24% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,522 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 35 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,602 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SAT → DEN flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.2% of the time, against 66.2% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 25.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 95.4% on time from 1,222 flights
- 6 AM: 95.3% on time from 497 flights
- 7 AM: 90.6% on time from 193 flights
- 8 AM: 82.6% on time from 835 flights
- 9 AM: 86.6% on time from 575 flights
- 10 AM: 89.8% on time from 603 flights
- 11 AM: 85.6% on time from 363 flights
- 12 PM: 85.4% on time from 407 flights
- 1 PM: 86.3% on time from 1,454 flights
- 2 PM: 80.3% on time from 214 flights
- 3 PM: 79.1% on time from 230 flights
- 4 PM: 73.1% on time from 1,365 flights
- 5 PM: 64.9% on time from 174 flights
- 6 PM: 64.2% on time from 409 flights
- 7 PM: 65.6% on time from 463 flights
- 8 PM: 69.0% on time from 380 flights
- 9 PM: 81.0% on time from 123 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SAT → DEN runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s 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 → DEN. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SAT → DEN, at 42.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 91.2% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 66.2%.
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 | 4,595 | 81.7% | 0.48% | -7 min | 5.3% |
| United Airlines | 4,097 | 84.3% | 0.54% | -9 min | 6.6% |
| Frontier Airlines | 859 | 75.7% | 1.51% | -7 min | 10.2% |
Southwest Airlines flew 48.1% of the 9,551 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 1.51% of its flights here against 0.48% for Southwest Airlines.
United Airlines arrived on time 8.6 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.8%
- Feb: 86.9%
- Mar: 84.9%
- Apr: 82.6%
- May: 76.8%
- Jun: 73.3%
- Jul: 76.2%
- Aug: 81.0%
- Sep: 87.0%
- Oct: 84.2%
- Nov: 88.9%
- Dec: 85.8%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 15.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 66.9% from 273 flights
- August 2023: 83.5% from 282 flights
- September 2023: 85.6% from 264 flights
- October 2023: 84.1% from 276 flights
- November 2023: 88.8% from 268 flights
- December 2023: 86.2% from 283 flights
- January 2024: 84.2% from 251 flights
- February 2024: 86.5% from 223 flights
- March 2024: 87.0% from 265 flights
- April 2024: 84.8% from 257 flights
- May 2024: 75.1% from 258 flights
- June 2024: 80.1% from 289 flights
- July 2024: 80.5% from 302 flights
- August 2024: 82.9% from 272 flights
- September 2024: 91.8% from 257 flights
- October 2024: 85.8% from 276 flights
- November 2024: 90.0% from 262 flights
- December 2024: 86.4% from 264 flights
- January 2025: 82.1% from 227 flights
- February 2025: 87.2% from 197 flights
- March 2025: 88.6% from 264 flights
- April 2025: 77.0% from 236 flights
- May 2025: 76.4% from 270 flights
- June 2025: 69.9% from 268 flights
- July 2025: 73.6% from 278 flights
- August 2025: 75.7% from 240 flights
- September 2025: 82.9% from 219 flights
- October 2025: 82.5% from 252 flights
- November 2025: 88.0% from 242 flights
- December 2025: 84.8% from 282 flights
- January 2026: 88.1% from 228 flights
- February 2026: 86.9% from 193 flights
- March 2026: 79.9% from 295 flights
- April 2026: 85.6% from 250 flights
- May 2026: 78.8% from 266 flights
- June 2026: 69.4% from 282 flights
- July 2026: 82.7% from 291 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.8% against 82.5% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,602 SAT → DEN 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