Carrier performance at one airport
AA→SAN
American Airlines at San Diego International
- Departures
- 9,358
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 6
- Rank here
- #5 of 10
American Airlines at San Diego lands a B, 3 points 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 close to two hours on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 9,358 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,577 at 86.8% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs 3 points 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
80.6%
9,122 completed departures
Avg delay
102 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.86%
At SAN, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at SAN
These figures cover 9,358 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 9 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 (this page) | 9,358 | 80.6% | 102 min | 1.86% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 14,952 | 79.8% | 58 min | 1.77% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 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 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 | 3,212 | 77.2% | 87 min | 3.08% | B− |
| SAN to PHX · Phoenix | 1,669 | 81.3% | 118 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| SAN to CLT · Charlotte | 1,427 | 83.5% | 106 min | 1.12% | B |
| SAN to ORD · Chicago | 1,386 | 77.3% | 93 min | 1.80% | B |
| SAN to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,046 | 88.4% | 136 min | 1.34% | A |
| SAN to MIA · Miami | 618 | 84.4% | 144 min | 1.29% | B |
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 23 points, against 26 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,163 flights89.3%
- 8am–11am1,781 flights81.3%
- 11am–2pm2,114 flights75.8%
- 2pm–5pm1,490 flights67.2%
- 5pm–8pm392 flights72.4%
- 8pm–5am1,418 flights89.9%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The overnight block holds up unusually well at 89.9% on time across 1,418 flights. Red-eyes fly into empty airspace and empty gates, and they are the first rotation of the aircraft's day rather than the last. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 2,163 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
August is the worst month at 75.7% on time, 11 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 886 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 10%Extreme weather
- 9%National Airspace System
- 0%Security
43% 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 180,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 4 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 180,318 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.86% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.66%.
7.4% 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 close to two hours kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 9,358 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: American's SAN operation record is 80.6% on time with 1.86% cancelled, worth a B. The largest single lever is the 8pm–5am departure window, and the numbers below the table are where the reasoning behind that lives. 9,122 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 arrive 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 9,358 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% 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 86.8% 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 American Airlines at SAN?
The 8pm–5am departure window is the strongest at 89.9% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 67.2%, 23 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 American Airlines at SAN?
August is the weakest month at 75.7% on time, compared with 87.1% in April. Across the year that is 11 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.