Carrier performance at one airport
AS→SAN
Alaska Airlines at San Diego International
- Departures
- 12,721
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #7 of 10
Alaska Airlines at San Diego lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 12,721 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,577 at 86.8% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Alaska Airlines runs about a point ahead of the 78.0% weighted average across all carriers at SAN. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
78.8%
12,450 completed departures
Avg delay
57 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.46%
At SAN, this carrier only
Rank here
#7
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at SAN
These figures cover 13,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 7 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.
Against the competition
Every carrier at SAN, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.8% of the time; Hawaiian Airlines manages 60.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 487 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 9,577 | 86.8% | 76 min | 1.13% | A |
| Spirit Airlines | 400 | 82.2% | 65 min | 1.50% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,646 | 81.5% | 106 min | 2.25% | B |
| United Airlines | 10,504 | 81.3% | 69 min | 0.75% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 9,358 | 80.6% | 102 min | 1.86% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 14,952 | 79.8% | 58 min | 1.77% | B |
| Alaska Airlines (this page) | 12,721 | 78.8% | 57 min | 1.46% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 37,660 | 73.5% | 51 min | 0.91% | C+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,265 | 72.3% | 82 min | 2.03% | C |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 487 | 60.8% | 78 min | 1.64% | D |
The spread between Delta and Hawaiian is 26 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 26 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Where Alaska Airlines flies from SAN
Alaska Airlines operates 25 routes out of SAN with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAN to SEA · Seattle | 2,763 | 77.8% | 61 min | 2.10% | B |
| SAN to PDX · Portland | 1,610 | 85.9% | 54 min | 1.18% | A |
| SAN to OGG · Kahului | 727 | 84.9% | 49 min | 0.83% | B+ |
| SAN to ORD · Chicago | 688 | 73.5% | 64 min | 2.33% | C |
| SAN to JFK · New York | 650 | 83.7% | 52 min | 1.38% | B |
| SAN to MCO · Orlando | 629 | 76.5% | 50 min | 0.79% | B+ |
| SAN to HNL · Honolulu | 552 | 69.1% | 65 min | 1.45% | C |
| SAN to BOS · Boston | 508 | 76.2% | 66 min | 1.77% | B |
| SAN to DEN · Denver | 433 | 83.4% | 57 min | 1.15% | B |
| SAN to TPA · Tampathin sample | 364 | 82.3% | 68 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| SAN to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 364 | 68.3% | 59 min | 1.37% | C |
| SAN to KOA · Kailua-Konathin sample | 364 | 78.7% | 46 min | 0.27% | B+ |
| SAN to GEG · Spokanethin sample | 363 | 81.3% | 48 min | 1.10% | B |
| SAN to IAD · Washingtonthin sample | 360 | 87.6% | 56 min | 0.83% | A+ |
| SAN to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 328 | 82.6% | 85 min | 3.66% | B− |
| SAN to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 303 | 54.0% | 55 min | 0.99% | F+ |
| SAN to LIH · Lihuethin sample | 284 | 79.9% | 55 min | 1.06% | B |
| SAN to BOI · Boisethin sample | 265 | 80.9% | 45 min | 1.13% | B |
| SAN to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 241 | 72.9% | 54 min | 0.41% | C+ |
| SAN to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 217 | 77.9% | 46 min | 1.84% | B |
| SAN to SMF · Sacramentothin sample | 185 | 77.2% | 43 min | 2.70% | B |
| SAN to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample | 172 | 68.2% | 60 min | 0.58% | C+ |
| SAN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 140 | 81.5% | 50 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| SAN to EUG · Eugenethin sample | 73 | 73.2% | 37 min | 2.74% | C |
| SAN to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 70 | 88.6% | 33 min | 0.00% | A+ |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 15 points, against 26 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,266 flights90.1%
- 8am–11am3,368 flights79.7%
- 11am–2pm2,253 flights74.9%
- 2pm–5pm1,657 flights78.4%
- 5pm–8pm1,898 flights76.4%
- 8pm–5am2,279 flights77.2%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 74.9% on time against 90.1% for 5am–8am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 3,368 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
August is the worst month at 69.5% on time, 17 points below April, the best at 86.8%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. June was the busiest month here, with 1,216 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 40%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%National Airspace System
- 24%Carrier
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
40% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 151,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 151,258 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.46% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.67%.
6.2% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the about an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
12,721 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.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 86.8% on time and August 69.5%, a swing of 17 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 12,450 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Alaska Airlines at SAN
How often is Alaska Airlines at SAN delayed?
About one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.2% of the 12,721 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Alaska Airlines at SAN?
Delta Air Lines leads at 86.8% on time across 9,577 flights. Hawaiian Airlines is at the other end on 60.8%, a gap of 26 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 at SAN?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.1% on time. The 11am–2pm window is the weakest at 74.9%, 15 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 August delays on Alaska Airlines at SAN?
August is the weakest month at 69.5% on time, compared with 86.8% in April. Across the year that is 17 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
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.