Route profile
SLC→SAT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Salt Lake City to San Antonio, 1,087 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 83% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,144 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SLC → SAT arrives on time 82.9% of the time; the return trip, SAT → SLC, arrives on time 86.0% of the time, a 3.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SLC → SAT spends 23.6 minutes on the ground on a 1,087-mile trip: 17.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SLC and 6.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at SAT.
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 96% of 4,467 comparable routes.
84.3% on time on the best day (Wednesday) against 80.5% on the worst (Thursday).
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 SLC to SAT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SLC to SAT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 81.6% arrive on time, 16.4 points ahead of the 65.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.2 points.
SLC to SAT holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 83.0% on time to their 73.0%, a 10 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.2 points.
March is kinder to SLC to SAT than to routes of similar length: 86.7% on time against 75.1%, 11.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.8 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on SLC to SAT than on its routes of similar length: 82.9% on time here, 80.4% there, 2.5 points apart.
SLC to SAT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 81.6% | routes of similar length | 65.2% | +16.4 pts | 543 here, 140,432 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 83.0% | routes of similar length | 73.0% | +10.0 pts | 453 here, 425,990 there |
| Month: March | 86.7% | routes of similar length | 75.1% | +11.6 pts | 263 here, 256,468 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 82.9% | routes of similar length | 80.4% | +2.5 pts | 3,117 here, 477,805 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 1,087 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 7 min early
Percentiles over 3,144 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SAT after arriving from SLC.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.8% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.0% | 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 0.60% of the time and diverts 0.22% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,118 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 3,144 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SLC → SAT flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 85.8% of the time, against 79.1% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 6.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 86.3% on time from 848 flights
- 10 AM: 84.7% on time from 255 flights
- 11 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 83.4% on time from 762 flights
- 2 PM: 71.9% on time from 131 flights
- 3 PM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 82.6% on time from 262 flights
- 6 PM to 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 81.6% on time from 550 flights
- 9 PM: 79.1% on time from 303 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SLC → SAT 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SLC → SAT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 | 3,143 | 82.9% | 0.60% | -7 min | 5.2% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL2797 Delta Air Lines | 8:50 PM | 780 | 80.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 3.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.0%
- Feb: 82.1%
- Mar: 86.7%
- Apr: 80.9%
- May: 82.7%
- Jun: 82.9%
- Jul: 74.7%
- Aug: 84.5%
- Sep: 85.2%
- Oct: 86.1%
- Nov: 88.1%
- Dec: 82.9%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 13.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 84.6% against 82.3% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,144 SLC → SAT 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