SAT → DFW Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · SATNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:51 UTC

San Antonio airport profile →

Destination · DFWNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Dallas–Fort Worth airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

46/ 100Fair

Better than 10% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 13,618 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

75.7%

10,006 of 13,212

Cancellation rate

2.80%

381 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-5 min

Average 16.1 min

Severe delays

10.4%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

93 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

13,618

4 carriers

SAT → DFW arrives on time 75.7% of the time; the return trip, DFW → SAT, arrives on time 68.0% of the time, a 7.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

SAT → DFW spends 27.9 minutes on the ground on a 247-mile trip: 14.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SAT and 12.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at DFW.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

What stands out

This route holds up about the same all year, a steadier seasonal pattern than 92% of 3,357 comparable routes.

80.7% on time in its best month (October) against 69.7% in its worst (June).

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 3,357 in the comparison.

Why SAT → DFW flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

SAT → DFW cancelled 381 of 13,618 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 36. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 86.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 41 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather86.4%

Airline11.0%

Air traffic2.6%

Security0.0%

Of 381 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 41

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

329 cancellations, 86.4% of the total.

The airline1 in 324

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

42 cancellations, 11.0% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 1,362

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

10 cancellations, 2.6% of the total.

Security—

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.

381 coded cancellations were recorded on SAT → DFW; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

63 min late

against a median of 5 min early

Arrived an hour or more late10.4%

Typical delay when late93 min

Cancelled2.80%

Landed somewhere else0.18%

SAT → DFW has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 5 min early, but the worst tenth are 68 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 13,618 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at DFW after arriving from SAT.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, SAT → DFW arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	39%	Likely to miss
45 min	24%	High risk
60 min	16%	High risk
90 min	10%	Some risk
120 min	7.1%	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 2.80% of the time and diverts 0.18% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 13,212 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 63 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 13,618 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

SAT → DFW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 85.0% of the time, against 62.5% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 22.5 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (SAT).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 9.8 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 1.7 points.

On-time arrival rate for SAT to DFW by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

50–59
60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for SAT to DFW. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM	89.6% on time179 flights	92.0% on time154 flights	90.3% on time147 flights	93.0% on time176 flights	92.4% on time178 flights	90.7% on time161 flights	89.1% on time161 flights
6 AM–7 AM	80.3% on time177 flights	87.8% on time173 flights	87.1% on time175 flights	85.4% on time174 flights	88.4% on time175 flights	85.4% on time176 flights	84.5% on time174 flights
7 AM–8 AM	84.3% on time121 flights	84.3% on time127 flights	85.5% on time126 flights	85.4% on time125 flights	85.2% on time124 flights	77.0% on time128 flights	81.7% on time121 flights
8 AM–9 AM	81.9% on time153 flights	82.0% on time146 flights	81.8% on time147 flights	82.3% on time150 flights	75.0% on time154 flights	72.3% on time144 flights	79.9% on time149 flights
9 AM–10 AM	77.8% on time156 flights	85.2% on time159 flights	86.3% on time158 flights	86.0% on time155 flights	82.4% on time156 flights	80.9% on time155 flights	83.2% on time157 flights
10 AM–11 AM	79.9% on time152 flights	78.0% on time154 flights	79.9% on time151 flights	83.9% on time149 flights	79.5% on time152 flights	79.9% on time144 flights	81.2% on time151 flights
11 AM–12 PM	59 flights, too few to score	61 flights, too few to score	63 flights, too few to score	59 flights, too few to score	59 flights, too few to score	50 flights, too few to score	65 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	67.8% on time120 flights	110 flights, too few to score	74.8% on time122 flights	76.3% on time122 flights	73.8% on time126 flights	81.5% on time126 flights	71.6% on time122 flights
1 PM–2 PM	60 flights, too few to score	59 flights, too few to score	61 flights, too few to score	62 flights, too few to score	62 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score	59 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	80.0% on time123 flights	80.0% on time124 flights	76.2% on time123 flights	74.6% on time120 flights	74.8% on time123 flights	72.0% on time120 flights	73.1% on time123 flights
3 PM–4 PM	65 flights, too few to score	71 flights, too few to score	70 flights, too few to score	67 flights, too few to score	70 flights, too few to score	63 flights, too few to score	70 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	55.3% on time164 flights	62.7% on time160 flights	59.5% on time158 flights	60.0% on time154 flights	59.0% on time160 flights	62.3% on time144 flights	55.3% on time159 flights
5 PM–6 PM	66.9% on time131 flights	104 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score	70.5% on time132 flights	68.8% on time131 flights	111 flights, too few to score	57.3% on time135 flights
6 PM–7 PM	66.1% on time123 flights	70.5% on time136 flights	61.3% on time128 flights	53.8% on time121 flights	58.1% on time120 flights	118 flights, too few to score	58.8% on time124 flights
7 PM–8 PM	85 flights, too few to score	71 flights, too few to score	74 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score	74 flights, too few to score	64 flights, too few to score	88 flights, too few to score
8 PM–9 PM	68.1% on time120 flights	75 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score	69.6% on time144 flights	66.1% on time121 flights	82 flights, too few to score	59.6% on time148 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM85.0%

9 AM–12 PM82.0%

12–3 PM75.1%

3–6 PM65.1%

6–9 PM62.5%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why SAT → DFW runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft48.3%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline24.1%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Weather15.6%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Air traffic control12.0%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Security<0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SAT → DFW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SAT → DFW, at 48.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 85.0% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 62.5%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

The harder-hit end is DFW, where the flight lands. Its figure counts departures from DFW, so it says more about how that airport copes than about this route. Bad weather cancels 7.0 times the normal rate at DFW against 1.6 times at SAT. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: SAT 1.7% against 1.1%, DFW 10.4% against 1.5%. Flights that did leave DFW in bad weather arrived on time 56.4% of the time, against 74.4% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from SAT and DFW in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	SAT	DFW
Cancelled in bad weather	1.7%	10.4%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.1%	1.5%
Arrived on time, bad weather	82.0%	56.4%
Arrived on time, normal hours	81.0%	74.4%
Departures in bad weather	10,996	72,822

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from SAT and DFW, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad.

Weather source and limits. In full: SAT, DFW, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
American Airlines	11,660	76.1%	2.65%	-5 min	10.4%
Envoy Air	1,162	74.5%	3.61%	-6 min	10.2%
SkyWest Airlines	572	75.0%	3.15%	-9 min	12.7%
Spirit Airlines	219	66.2%	5.48%	8 min	8.2%

American Airlines flew 85.7% of the 13,613 flights listed. Spirit Airlines cancelled 5.48% of its flights here against 2.65% for American Airlines.

American Airlines arrived on time 9.9 percentage points more often than Spirit Airlines on this route.

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
AA2342 American Airlines	5:00 AM	1,083	90.6%
AA2377 American Airlines	8:00 AM	629	78.8%

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon75.0%

Tue78.3%

Wed76.9%

Thu77.4%

Fri75.4%

Sat74.6%

Sun72.7%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.6 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

June is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 11.0 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.9% against 75.6% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.3 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 13,618 SAT → DFW 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

SAT airport DFW airport Return direction DFW → SAT

SAT→DFW

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why SAT → DFW flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why SAT → DFW runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology