Airline on-time record
AS
Alaska Airlines
- Flights
- 309,844
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Airports
- 25
- US rank
- #8 by volume
Alaska Airlines lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average. That rests on 309,844 flights, of which Santa Ana (SNA) flew 4,387 at 89.6% on time.
Santa Ana (SNA) is the most reliable of the 25 airports covered here at 89.6% on time across 4,387 flights.
Key figures
On time
79.7%
National average is 77.3%
Avg delay
52 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.20%
National rate is 1.89%
Largest base
SEA
76,970 departures, 78.5% on time
These figures cover 310,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 4 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Airport by airport
Where Alaska Airlines runs well, and where it does not
The choice of airport is not cosmetic here. Santa Ana (SNA) arrives on time 89.6% of the time; Chicago (ORD) manages 67.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 3,346 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airport | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEA · Seattle | 76,970 | 78.5% | 47 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| PDX · Portland | 24,677 | 83.0% | 46 min | 0.66% | B+ |
| HNL · Honolulu | 23,409 | 77.0% | 47 min | 1.59% | B |
| ANC · Anchorage | 15,096 | 86.4% | 55 min | 1.17% | A |
| SAN · San Diego | 13,373 | 79.0% | 57 min | 1.35% | B |
| OGG · Kahului | 10,985 | 76.9% | 47 min | 1.36% | B |
| SFO · San Francisco | 10,629 | 75.0% | 55 min | 1.10% | B |
| LAX · Los Angeles | 9,969 | 80.0% | 55 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| KOA · Kailua-Kona | 7,372 | 79.7% | 48 min | 1.45% | B |
| LIH · Lihue | 7,222 | 78.3% | 49 min | 1.80% | B |
| LAS · Las Vegas | 7,098 | 78.7% | 60 min | 1.01% | B |
| PHX · Phoenix | 5,685 | 84.9% | 54 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| JNU · Juneau | 4,573 | 83.0% | 64 min | 2.10% | B |
| SNA · Santa Ana | 4,387 | 89.6% | 47 min | 1.09% | A |
| JFK · New York | 4,032 | 71.5% | 68 min | 2.80% | C |
| ORD · Chicago | 3,346 | 67.4% | 70 min | 1.82% | C |
| FAI · Fairbanks | 3,298 | 84.8% | 59 min | 0.79% | B+ |
| ITO · Hilo | 3,206 | 75.8% | 43 min | 2.15% | B |
| SJC · San Jose | 3,070 | 84.4% | 51 min | 0.91% | B+ |
| EWR · Newark | 2,985 | 73.7% | 70 min | 2.45% | C |
| GEG · Spokane | 2,915 | 84.7% | 50 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| DEN · Denver | 2,879 | 78.1% | 57 min | 0.66% | B+ |
| SMF · Sacramento | 2,855 | 83.9% | 53 min | 0.88% | B+ |
| BUR · Burbank | 2,733 | 86.9% | 62 min | 1.72% | A |
| DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 2,459 | 76.1% | 56 min | 1.10% | B |
The spread between SNA and ORD is 22 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 22 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Busiest Alaska Airlines routes
These are the 25 routes Alaska Airlines flies most often, each against its network-wide 79.7%. Route-level variation inside a single airline is routinely wider than the gap between two airlines nationally.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEA to ANC | 4,999 | 76.3% | 47 min | 0.74% | B+ |
| ANC to SEA | 4,997 | 86.4% | 54 min | 0.90% | A+ |
| OGG to HNL | 4,653 | 77.9% | 43 min | 1.85% | B |
| HNL to OGG | 4,650 | 78.2% | 40 min | 1.66% | B |
| LIH to HNL | 3,954 | 78.9% | 46 min | 2.53% | B |
| HNL to LIH | 3,952 | 78.6% | 39 min | 2.25% | B |
| KOA to HNL | 3,697 | 77.6% | 45 min | 1.79% | B |
| HNL to KOA | 3,696 | 82.0% | 38 min | 1.62% | B |
| SEA to LAX | 3,293 | 80.4% | 42 min | 0.91% | B+ |
| LAX to SEA | 3,292 | 85.2% | 52 min | 0.88% | A+ |
| HNL to ITO | 2,998 | 79.3% | 39 min | 2.30% | B |
| ITO to HNL | 2,995 | 75.1% | 43 min | 2.27% | B |
| SEA to PHX | 2,889 | 79.2% | 45 min | 0.66% | B+ |
| PHX to SEA | 2,886 | 84.4% | 56 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| SFO to SEA | 2,729 | 68.8% | 54 min | 1.28% | C |
| SEA to SAN | 2,728 | 73.3% | 45 min | 0.95% | C+ |
| SEA to SFO | 2,727 | 56.0% | 52 min | 1.14% | D |
| SAN to SEA | 2,727 | 79.5% | 60 min | 1.72% | B |
| SEA to LAS | 2,612 | 78.7% | 48 min | 0.84% | B+ |
| LAS to SEA | 2,610 | 83.2% | 66 min | 1.19% | B |
| SEA to SNA | 2,570 | 86.3% | 40 min | 0.93% | A+ |
| SNA to SEA | 2,569 | 87.9% | 48 min | 1.13% | A |
| SEA to SJC | 1,887 | 79.8% | 44 min | 1.06% | B |
| SJC to SEA | 1,884 | 80.7% | 51 min | 1.27% | B |
| LAX to PDX | 1,818 | 89.8% | 51 min | 0.50% | A+ |
Flight by flight
Busiest Alaska Airlines flight numbers
Alaska Airlines has 275 flight numbers that flew one route often enough to report a rate. These are the busiest; the full list is one click away.
Departure window
The best time of day to fly Alaska Airlines
Departure time matters more here than the choice of airport. The gap between the best and worst window is 12 points, against 22 points between the best and worst airport.
- 5am–8am48,828 flights87.4%
- 8am–11am63,265 flights81.8%
- 11am–2pm51,549 flights77.9%
- 2pm–5pm50,221 flights76.8%
- 5pm–8pm55,842 flights75.3%
- 8pm–5am40,139 flights79.0%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 87.4% of the time, against 75.3% for the evening window. That is 12 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 63,265 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Alaska Airlines through the calendar
Alaska's year swings by 12 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
December is the weak month at 72.0% on time, against 84.2% in April. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. July was the busiest month here, with 31,682 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.7% on time and Friday the weakest at 77.1%, a spread of 6 points.
Delay causes
What holds Alaska Airlines up
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 3.21 million reported delay minutes.
- 38%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 24%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
38% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 3.21 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 3,213,738 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 87.4% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.20% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.28%.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.9% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
309,844 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
What to do with this
Booking Alaska Airlines
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 84.2% on time and December 72.0%, a swing of 12 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 305,255 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Alaska Airlines reliability questions
How often is Alaska Airlines delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 20.3% of the 309,844 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average.
Which airport does Alaska Airlines run best from?
Santa Ana (SNA) leads at 89.6% on time across 4,387 flights. Chicago (ORD) is at the other end on 67.4%, a gap of 22 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on Alaska Airlines?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.4% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 75.3%, 12 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are December delays on Alaska Airlines?
December is the weakest month at 72.0% on time, compared with 84.2% in April. Across the year that is 12 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- Alaska Airlines at SEA — Seattle78.5%
- Alaska Airlines at PDX — Portland83.0%
- Alaska Airlines at HNL — Honolulu77.0%
- Alaska Airlines at ANC — Anchorage86.4%
- Alaska Airlines at SAN — San Diego79.0%
- SEA to ANC route record76.3%
- ANC to SEA route record86.4%
- OGG to HNL route record77.9%
- HNL to OGG route record78.2%
- US airline on-time rankings: 14 carriers, four measures
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.