Carrier performance at one airport
OO→SAN
SkyWest Airlines at San Diego International
- Departures
- 14,921
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #6 of 8
SkyWest Airlines at San Diego lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 14,921 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,581 at 86.3% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, SkyWest Airlines runs about a point 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
77.8%
14,558 completed departures
Avg delay
58 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.01%
At SAN, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 8 carriers clearing the floor at SAN
These figures cover 15,000 flights between September 2025 and August 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 86.3% 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 | 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 (this page) | 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 SkyWest Airlines flies from SAN
SkyWest 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 LAX · Los Angeles | 2,163 | 87.2% | 70 min | 1.06% | A |
| SAN to SFO · San Francisco | 1,482 | 59.8% | 64 min | 1.96% | D |
| SAN to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,193 | 79.4% | 66 min | 1.26% | B |
| SAN to FAT · Fresno | 1,191 | 77.1% | 48 min | 2.52% | B |
| SAN to SMF · Sacramento | 1,136 | 80.0% | 49 min | 1.41% | B |
| SAN to SJC · San Jose | 1,112 | 80.7% | 56 min | 1.26% | B |
| SAN to AUS · Austin | 1,070 | 78.0% | 59 min | 1.50% | B |
| SAN to STS · Santa Rosa | 833 | 80.1% | 51 min | 4.08% | B− |
| SAN to SLC · Salt Lake City | 818 | 77.6% | 62 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| SAN to PHX · Phoenix | 593 | 63.2% | 53 min | 5.23% | D− |
| SAN to MRY · Monterey | 540 | 77.6% | 43 min | 4.44% | B− |
| SAN to SBP · San Luis Obispo | 445 | 80.2% | 56 min | 4.72% | B− |
| SAN to DEN · Denver | 404 | 72.1% | 52 min | 3.47% | C− |
| SAN to BOI · Boisethin sample | 356 | 83.9% | 72 min | 0.28% | B+ |
| SAN to OAK · Oaklandthin sample | 337 | 75.6% | 52 min | 1.48% | B |
| SAN to EUG · Eugenethin sample | 289 | 80.1% | 48 min | 1.04% | B |
| SAN to RNO · Renothin sample | 277 | 88.3% | 54 min | 3.97% | A− |
| SAN to MFR · Medfordthin sample | 167 | 71.7% | 54 min | 0.60% | C+ |
| SAN to SBA · Santa Barbarathin sample | 124 | 85.2% | 45 min | 1.61% | A |
| SAN to RDM · Redmondthin sample | 116 | 86.7% | 35 min | 2.59% | A |
| SAN to JAC · Jacksonthin sample | 97 | 84.4% | 40 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SAN to HDN · Haydenthin sample | 51 | 64.0% | 94 min | 0.00% | D+ |
| SAN to BZN · Bozemanthin sample | 49 | 79.2% | 79 min | 2.04% | B |
| SAN to EGE · Eaglethin sample | 47 | 73.9% | 72 min | 2.13% | C |
| SAN to PDX · Portlandthin sample | 30 | 86.7% | 69 min | 0.00% | A+ |
Flight by flight
SkyWest Airlines flight numbers from SAN
10 SkyWest 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 17 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am964 flights88.0%
- 8am–11am3,679 flights83.4%
- 11am–2pm2,643 flights72.8%
- 2pm–5pm2,278 flights70.9%
- 5pm–8pm2,585 flights76.1%
- 8pm–5am2,772 flights78.7%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.0% of the time, against 70.9% for the afternoon window. That is 17 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 3,679 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
August is the worst month at 63.6% on time, 22 points below January, the best at 85.5%. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 1,450 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 37%Late-arriving aircraft
- 35%National Airspace System
- 23%Carrier
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
37% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 187,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 187,059 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.01% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.42%.
7.2% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
14,921 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. January runs 85.5% on time and August 63.6%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 14,558 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SkyWest Airlines at SAN
How often is SkyWest Airlines at SAN delayed?
Roughly 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 22.2% of the 14,921 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SkyWest 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 SkyWest Airlines at SAN?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.0% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 70.9%, 17 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 SkyWest Airlines at SAN?
August is the weakest month at 63.6% on time, compared with 85.5% in January. Across the year that is 22 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.