Carrier performance at one airport
AA→SAN
American Airlines at San Diego International
- Departures
- 9,387
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 6
- Rank here
- #2 of 8
American Airlines at San Diego lands a B, 3 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 close to two hours on average. That rests on 9,387 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,581 at 86.3% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs 4 points ahead of the 76.3% 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
80.6%
9,171 completed departures
Avg delay
103 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.64%
At SAN, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 8 carriers clearing the floor at SAN
These figures cover 9,387 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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 86.3% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 70.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 39,067 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 9,581 | 86.3% | 79 min | 1.17% | A |
| American Airlines (this page) | 9,387 | 80.6% | 103 min | 1.64% | B |
| United Airlines | 10,655 | 79.7% | 69 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 13,373 | 79.0% | 57 min | 1.35% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,643 | 78.8% | 97 min | 3.16% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 14,921 | 77.8% | 58 min | 2.01% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,105 | 71.5% | 81 min | 1.95% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 39,067 | 70.6% | 51 min | 0.92% | C+ |
JetBlue Airways cancels 3.2% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where American Airlines flies from SAN
American Airlines operates 6 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 DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,211 | 77.4% | 84 min | 2.46% | B |
| SAN to PHX · Phoenix | 1,663 | 80.5% | 124 min | 0.78% | B+ |
| SAN to ORD · Chicago | 1,400 | 79.5% | 98 min | 1.57% | B |
| SAN to CLT · Charlotte | 1,386 | 82.4% | 102 min | 1.08% | B |
| SAN to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,047 | 87.0% | 112 min | 1.53% | A |
| SAN to MIA · Miami | 680 | 83.9% | 173 min | 1.32% | B |
Flight by flight
American Airlines flight numbers from SAN
2 American Airlines flight numbers leaving SAN flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
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 21 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,227 flights88.9%
- 8am–11am1,721 flights82.0%
- 11am–2pm2,221 flights76.2%
- 2pm–5pm1,422 flights67.7%
- 5pm–8pm366 flights68.2%
- 8pm–5am1,430 flights88.3%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.9% of the time, against 67.7% for the afternoon window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 2,227 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 72.9% on time, 14 points below April, the best at 87.1%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 887 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 40%Carrier
- 9%National Airspace System
- 9%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 184,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 184,329 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.64% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.66%.
7.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last close to two hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 9,387 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 87.1% on time and July 72.9%, a swing of 14 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 9,171 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at SAN
How often is American Airlines at SAN 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 19.4% of the 9,387 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at SAN?
Delta Air Lines leads at 86.3% on time across 9,581 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 70.6%, a gap of 16 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 American Airlines at SAN?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.9% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 67.7%, 21 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 July delays on American Airlines at SAN?
July is the weakest month at 72.9% on time, compared with 87.1% in April. Across the year that is 14 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.