Route profile
SLC→AUS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Salt Lake City to Austin, 1,086 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 5,413 flights. How this is calculated
SLC → AUS arrives on time 80.2% of the time; the return trip, AUS → SLC, arrives on time 82.7% of the time, a 2.5-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SLC → AUS spends 26.3 minutes on the ground on a 1,086-mile trip: 16.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SLC and 10.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at AUS.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where SLC to AUS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SLC to AUS is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 80.6% arrive on time, 15.6 points ahead of the 65.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.1 points.
SLC to AUS holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 77.7% on time to their 73.0%, a 4.7 points lead.
March is kinder to SLC to AUS than to routes of similar length: 84.4% on time against 75.1%, 9.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.5 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on SLC to AUS than on its routes of similar length: 79.0% on time here, 75.3% there, 3.7 points apart.
SLC to AUS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 80.6% | routes of similar length | 65.0% | +15.6 pts | 144 here, 77,670 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 77.7% | routes of similar length | 73.0% | +4.7 pts | 777 here, 422,451 there |
| Month: March | 84.4% | routes of similar length | 75.1% | +9.3 pts | 448 here, 254,058 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 79.0% | routes of similar length | 75.3% | +3.7 pts | 1,455 here, 641,624 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 1,086 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
37 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 5,413 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at AUS after arriving from SLC.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 36% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.4% | 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 0.50% of the time and diverts 0.28% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,371 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 37 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,413 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SLC → AUS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.5% of the time, against 76.2% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 15.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 89.4% on time from 170 flights
- 9 AM: 85.8% on time from 1,093 flights
- 10 AM: 84.0% on time from 320 flights
- 11 AM: 81.1% on time from 278 flights
- 12 PM: 77.6% on time from 147 flights
- 1 PM: 78.2% on time from 992 flights
- 2 PM: 68.6% on time from 290 flights
- 3 PM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 77.7% on time from 1,266 flights
- 6 PM to 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 78.0% on time from 332 flights
- 9 PM: 80.6% on time from 144 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SLC → AUS runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 SLC → AUS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 | 3,576 | 80.4% | 0.53% | -7 min | 6.6% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,464 | 79.0% | 0.41% | -3 min | 3.8% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 373 | 82.1% | 0.54% | -7 min | 3.0% |
Delta Air Lines flew 66.1% of the 5,413 flights listed.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 3.1 percentage points more often than Southwest 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL2728 Delta Air Lines | 5:15 PM | 782 | 79.3% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.9%
- Feb: 82.5%
- Mar: 84.4%
- Apr: 79.1%
- May: 73.6%
- Jun: 73.7%
- Jul: 69.4%
- Aug: 81.4%
- Sep: 86.2%
- Oct: 86.3%
- Nov: 84.8%
- Dec: 85.3%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 16.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 75.5% from 150 flights
- August 2023: 79.1% from 155 flights
- September 2023: 87.9% from 144 flights
- October 2023: 90.4% from 146 flights
- November 2023: 92.4% from 131 flights
- December 2023: 93.9% from 132 flights
- January 2024: 75.4% from 139 flights
- February 2024: 79.5% from 132 flights
- March 2024: 81.5% from 130 flights
- April 2024: 77.9% from 132 flights
- May 2024: 68.9% from 152 flights
- June 2024: 71.2% from 163 flights
- July 2024: 68.1% from 167 flights
- August 2024: 80.8% from 151 flights
- September 2024: 82.8% from 145 flights
- October 2024: 87.9% from 157 flights
- November 2024: 84.7% from 144 flights
- December 2024: 77.2% from 149 flights
- January 2025: 83.2% from 127 flights
- February 2025: 81.3% from 123 flights
- March 2025: 85.9% from 151 flights
- April 2025: 71.7% from 139 flights
- May 2025: 65.2% from 141 flights
- June 2025: 74.4% from 160 flights
- July 2025: 64.7% from 169 flights
- August 2025: 84.5% from 142 flights
- September 2025: 88.0% from 133 flights
- October 2025: 80.8% from 153 flights
- November 2025: 77.6% from 134 flights
- December 2025: 85.7% from 140 flights
- January 2026: 87.3% from 139 flights
- February 2026: 86.4% from 141 flights
- March 2026: 85.2% from 170 flights
- April 2026: 87.1% from 149 flights
- May 2026: 86.4% from 150 flights
- June 2026: 75.5% from 163 flights
- July 2026: 70.1% from 170 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.6% against 78.2% in the 12 months before — improving by 4.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,413 SLC → AUS 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