Carrier performance at one airport
OO→SFO
SkyWest Airlines at San Francisco International
- Departures
- 31,536
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #6 of 8
SkyWest Airlines at San Francisco sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 31,536 flights, of which United Airlines flew 62,048 at 79.8% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, SkyWest Airlines runs 2 points behind the 75.3% weighted average across all carriers at SFO. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
73.8%
30,995 completed departures
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.31%
At SFO, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 8 carriers clearing the floor at SFO
These figures cover 32,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at SFO, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 79.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 54.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 9,968 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 62,048 | 79.8% | 58 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 11,939 | 76.4% | 102 min | 1.84% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 13,973 | 75.8% | 67 min | 1.29% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 4,519 | 75.6% | 76 min | 2.21% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 10,629 | 75.0% | 55 min | 1.10% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines (this page) | 31,536 | 73.8% | 74 min | 1.31% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 3,581 | 62.7% | 81 min | 2.18% | D |
| Southwest Airlines | 9,968 | 54.8% | 61 min | 0.90% | F+ |
The spread between United and Southwest is 25 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 25 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Where SkyWest Airlines flies from SFO
SkyWest Airlines operates 25 routes out of SFO 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SFO to SNA · Santa Ana | 3,497 | 76.9% | 61 min | 1.69% | B |
| SFO to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,513 | 72.9% | 61 min | 1.07% | C |
| SFO to PSP · Palm Springs | 2,236 | 72.1% | 77 min | 1.16% | C |
| SFO to BOI · Boise | 1,510 | 75.7% | 75 min | 0.26% | B+ |
| SFO to SAN · San Diego | 1,442 | 60.1% | 59 min | 2.36% | D |
| SFO to FAT · Fresno | 1,285 | 73.6% | 97 min | 1.48% | C |
| SFO to ACV · Arcata/Eureka | 1,272 | 73.5% | 93 min | 2.52% | C |
| SFO to SMF · Sacramento | 1,243 | 77.0% | 79 min | 1.77% | B |
| SFO to SEA · Seattle | 1,040 | 68.8% | 50 min | 1.15% | C |
| SFO to RNO · Reno | 1,035 | 72.5% | 79 min | 1.64% | C |
| SFO to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,008 | 75.9% | 68 min | 1.39% | B |
| SFO to BUR · Burbank | 924 | 79.2% | 75 min | 2.06% | B |
| SFO to RDD · Redding | 891 | 71.5% | 125 min | 1.91% | C |
| SFO to TUS · Tucson | 881 | 76.0% | 67 min | 0.34% | B+ |
| SFO to SBP · San Luis Obispo | 834 | 73.1% | 114 min | 1.32% | C |
| SFO to GEG · Spokane | 834 | 73.6% | 66 min | 0.60% | C+ |
| SFO to MRY · Monterey | 780 | 72.6% | 89 min | 0.38% | C+ |
| SFO to SBA · Santa Barbara | 692 | 75.8% | 77 min | 2.02% | B |
| SFO to RDM · Redmond | 654 | 68.8% | 65 min | 1.38% | C |
| SFO to MFR · Medford | 620 | 77.3% | 79 min | 1.77% | B |
| SFO to BFL · Bakersfield | 583 | 68.9% | 78 min | 0.69% | C+ |
| SFO to PSC · Pasco | 576 | 81.0% | 99 min | 0.17% | B+ |
| SFO to PHX · Phoenix | 572 | 85.2% | 75 min | 0.70% | A+ |
| SFO to ABQ · Albuquerque | 473 | 81.7% | 65 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| SFO to ASE · Aspen | 376 | 67.7% | 133 min | 2.39% | C |
Flight by flight
SkyWest Airlines flight numbers from SFO
22 SkyWest Airlines flight numbers leaving SFO flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
- OO 4695to ACV 20:5572.8%
- OO 4708to ACV 10:1570.5%
- OO 5480to ACV 16:3171.9%
- OO 4671to BFL 10:4570.4%
- OO 3375to BOI 19:2575.2%
- OO 5479to MRY 09:3074.6%
- OO 5670to MRY 21:0575.5%
- OO 6404to PHX 06:0090.7%
- OO 5491to PSC 09:3087.7%
- OO 5705to PSP 19:0080.2%
- OO 5286to RDD 11:0570.4%
- OO 5724to RDD 22:3572.2%
- OO 5425to RDM 16:3077.6%
- OO 5394to RNO 08:1386.9%
- OO 5707to RNO 12:1260.3%
- OO 3707to SEA 16:3765.1%
- OO 5220to SMF 08:1782.2%
- OO 5796to SMF 18:4575.4%
- OO 3450to SNA 09:2876.4%
- OO 3494to SNA 15:4880.6%
- OO 5440to SNA 13:3077.3%
- OO 5688to TUS 20:5775.2%
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 25 points, against 25 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,599 flights92.8%
- 8am–11am7,716 flights77.4%
- 11am–2pm5,669 flights67.7%
- 2pm–5pm6,314 flights70.8%
- 5pm–8pm4,945 flights75.7%
- 8pm–5am5,293 flights70.9%
Scale runs 60% to 100%.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 67.7% on time against 92.8% 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 7,716 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 62.4% on time, 23 points below March, the best at 85.7%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 2,800 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 36%National Airspace System
- 28%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%Carrier
- 9%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
36% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 219,000 minutes out of 604,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 603,663 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.31% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.41%.
9.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
31,536 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. March runs 85.7% on time and June 62.4%, a swing of 23 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 30,995 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SkyWest Airlines at SFO
How often is SkyWest Airlines at SFO delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 26.2% of the 31,536 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SkyWest Airlines at SFO?
United Airlines leads at 79.8% on time across 62,048 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 54.8%, a gap of 25 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 SFO?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.8% on time. The 11am–2pm window is the weakest at 67.7%, 25 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 June delays on SkyWest Airlines at SFO?
June is the weakest month at 62.4% on time, compared with 85.7% in March. Across the year that is 23 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
- SkyWest Airlines network-wide record
- San Francisco International (SFO) all carriers
- SFO to SNA route record76.9%
- SFO to LAX route record72.9%
- SFO to PSP route record72.1%
- SFO to BOI route record75.7%
- Do airlines run better at their own hubs?
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.