Route profile
SNA→AUS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Santa Ana to Austin, 1,209 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 79% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,655 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SNA → AUS arrives on time 81.6% of the time; the return trip, AUS → SNA, arrives on time 74.6% of the time, a 6.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SNA → AUS spends 20.9 minutes on the ground on a 1,209-mile trip: 13.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SNA and 7.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at AUS.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability on this route has fallen unusually sharply over the past year, a bigger swing than 94% of 5,368 comparable routes.
78.4% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 89.7% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), a change of 11.3 points.
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 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SNA to AUS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SNA to AUS is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 AM: 95.7% arrive on time, 7.5 points ahead of the 88.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.9 points.
SNA to AUS struggles most at 12 PM: 73.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 4.4 points behind the 77.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 5.9 points.
SNA to AUS holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 89.0% on time to their 77.4%, a 11.6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 9.9 points.
June is kinder to SNA to AUS than to routes of similar length: 89.4% on time against 71.7%, 17.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 16.7 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on SNA to AUS than on its routes of similar length: 84.9% on time here, 75.8% there, 9.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.5 points.
SNA to AUS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 95.7% | routes of similar length | 88.2% | +7.5 pts | 161 here, 169,206 there |
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 73.5% | routes of similar length | 77.9% | −4.4 pts | 388 here, 128,560 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 89.0% | routes of similar length | 77.4% | +11.6 pts | 146 here, 261,868 there |
| Month: June | 89.4% | routes of similar length | 71.7% | +17.7 pts | 123 here, 158,288 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 84.9% | routes of similar length | 75.8% | +9.1 pts | 1,078 here, 431,442 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 1,209 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 4 min early
Percentiles over 1,655 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at AUS after arriving from SNA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 10.0% | 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 0.36% of the time and diverts 0.36% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,643 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 1,655 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SNA → AUS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.1% of the time, against 72.4% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 19.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 95.7% on time from 162 flights
- 8 AM: 90.2% on time from 306 flights
- 9 AM: 89.8% on time from 287 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 75.2% on time from 239 flights
- 12 PM: 73.5% on time from 392 flights
- 1 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SNA → AUS 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
screening or terminal security incidents
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SNA → AUS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SNA → AUS, at 51.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.1% of the time and 12–3 PM departures 72.4%.
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 | 1,083 | 84.9% | 0.09% | -3 min | 3.1% |
| American Airlines | 463 | 75.5% | 0.86% | -5 min | 10.3% |
Southwest Airlines flew 70.1% of the 1,546 flights listed.
Southwest Airlines arrived on time 9.4 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Los Angeles to Austin
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAX→AUS Los Angeles to Austin | 12,806 | 79.5% | 0.58% | -6 min | 71 |
| SNA→AUS this route Santa Ana to Austin | 1,655 | 81.6% | 0.36% | -4 min | 76 |
SNA → AUS is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 81.6% on time, against 79.5% for LAX → AUS.
Flying to AUS from the Los Angeles area? Compare SNA, LAX, BUR, ONT for AUS, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 13.4 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.8%
- Feb: no data
- Mar: 80.2%
- Apr: 84.3%
- May: 86.6%
- Jun: 89.4%
- Jul: 74.5%
- Aug: 77.3%
- Sep: 82.2%
- Oct: 82.9%
- Nov: 77.5%
- Dec: 83.6%
July is historically the weakest month and June the strongest, a spread of 14.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.4% against 89.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 11.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,655 SNA → 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