Carrier performance at one airport
OO→SJC
SkyWest Airlines at Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International
- Departures
- 6,970
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 8
- Rank here
- #3 of 7
SkyWest Airlines at San Jose earns a A+. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 11 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 6,970 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 2,727 at 91.8% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, SkyWest Airlines runs 5 points ahead of the 83.5% weighted average across all carriers at SJC. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
88.4%
6,934 completed departures
Avg delay
65 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.44%
At SJC, this carrier only
Rank here
#3
Of 7 carriers clearing the floor at SJC
These figures cover 6,970 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 12 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 SJC, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 91.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 80.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 26,718 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 2,727 | 91.8% | 90 min | 1.32% | A |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 426 | 91.1% | 111 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines (this page) | 6,970 | 88.4% | 65 min | 0.44% | A+ |
| United Airlines | 1,524 | 86.2% | 69 min | 0.52% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,637 | 85.4% | 53 min | 1.40% | A |
| American Airlines | 1,774 | 83.3% | 95 min | 1.75% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 26,718 | 80.9% | 48 min | 0.56% | B+ |
Delta leads Southwest by 11 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Route by route
Where SkyWest Airlines flies from SJC
SkyWest Airlines operates 8 routes out of SJC 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SJC to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,153 | 92.5% | 70 min | 0.37% | A+ |
| SJC to SEA · Seattle | 1,539 | 88.9% | 70 min | 0.19% | A+ |
| SJC to SAN · San Diego | 1,182 | 77.7% | 51 min | 1.27% | B |
| SJC to SLC · Salt Lake City | 689 | 95.2% | 75 min | 0.15% | A+ |
| SJC to PDX · Portland | 484 | 93.6% | 76 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SJC to BOI · Boisethin sample | 345 | 87.2% | 57 min | 0.29% | A+ |
| SJC to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 297 | 85.4% | 95 min | 1.01% | A |
| SJC to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 232 | 79.7% | 78 min | 0.00% | B+ |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 6,970 flights.
- 5am–8am1,092 flights93.0%
- 8am–11am1,039 flights86.9%
- 11am–2pm1,218 flights89.6%
- 2pm–5pm1,532 flights85.7%
- 5pm–8pm1,662 flights87.9%
- 8pm–5am427 flights89.2%
Scale runs 75% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The early departures do better, though not dramatically: 93.0% on time for the 5am–8am window against 85.7% for 2pm–5pm. Worth taking if the schedule allows, not worth an extra connection.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 83.0% on time, against 91.3% in August. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 51%Carrier
- 19%Late-arriving aircraft
- 18%National Airspace System
- 13%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 13% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 2.0 times the usual weather exposure.
Cancellations are rare at 0.44%, below the national 1.80% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.5% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
The sample behind these figures is 6,970 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: take the 5am–8am departure, avoid December if the dates are flexible, and if two carriers are within a few dollars of each other, Delta is the one with the record behind it. None of that guarantees an on-time arrival; it moves the odds by 11 points, which is the most any booking decision can do.
Common questions
SkyWest Airlines at SJC
How often is SkyWest Airlines at SJC delayed?
About one flight in nine arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 11.6% of the 6,970 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SkyWest Airlines at SJC?
Delta Air Lines leads at 91.8% on time across 2,727 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 80.9%, a gap of 11 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 SJC?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.0% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 85.7%, 7 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 December delays on SkyWest Airlines at SJC?
December is the weakest month at 83.0% on time, compared with 91.3% in August. Across the year that is 8 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, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.