Carrier performance at one airport
WN→OAK
Southwest Airlines at Oakland International
- Departures
- 28,547
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #5 of 5
Southwest Airlines at Oakland lands a B+, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 50 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 28,547 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 1,380 at 89.5% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs about a point behind the 80.3% weighted average across all carriers at OAK. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
79.5%
28,329 completed departures
Avg delay
50 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.60%
At OAK, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 5 carriers clearing the floor at OAK
These figures cover 29,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 4 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 OAK, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 89.5% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 79.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 28,547 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,380 | 89.5% | 67 min | 0.36% | A+ |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 583 | 88.4% | 170 min | 2.06% | A |
| Spirit Airlines | 383 | 85.3% | 78 min | 0.78% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,112 | 84.1% | 48 min | 1.53% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 28,547 | 79.5% | 50 min | 0.60% | B+ |
SkyWest leads Southwest by 10 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Route by route
Where Southwest Airlines flies from OAK
Southwest Airlines operates 25 routes out of OAK 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OAK to LAS · Las Vegas | 3,176 | 79.2% | 52 min | 0.66% | B+ |
| OAK to SAN · San Diego | 2,985 | 68.8% | 49 min | 1.04% | C |
| OAK to BUR · Burbank | 2,813 | 82.4% | 53 min | 1.32% | B |
| OAK to SNA · Santa Ana | 2,310 | 86.3% | 45 min | 0.65% | A+ |
| OAK to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,122 | 80.8% | 52 min | 0.99% | B+ |
| OAK to PHX · Phoenix | 1,952 | 77.6% | 54 min | 0.20% | B+ |
| OAK to LGB · Long Beach | 1,649 | 86.5% | 49 min | 0.30% | A+ |
| OAK to DEN · Denver | 1,615 | 73.3% | 48 min | 0.43% | C+ |
| OAK to ONT · Ontario | 1,512 | 83.3% | 53 min | 0.40% | B+ |
| OAK to PDX · Portland | 1,205 | 80.6% | 54 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| OAK to SEA · Seattle | 1,154 | 76.4% | 46 min | 0.26% | B+ |
| OAK to SLC · Salt Lake City | 622 | 80.4% | 63 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| OAK to BOI · Boise | 600 | 83.5% | 55 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| OAK to PSP · Palm Springs | 486 | 78.4% | 45 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| OAK to DAL · Dallas | 471 | 76.9% | 55 min | 0.85% | B+ |
| OAK to MDW · Chicago | 459 | 87.9% | 32 min | 0.22% | A+ |
| OAK to GEG · Spokane | 432 | 76.2% | 45 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| OAK to HOU · Houston | 376 | 80.3% | 35 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| OAK to HNL · Honolulu | 365 | 78.9% | 44 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| OAK to OGG · Kahului | 365 | 79.4% | 57 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| OAK to LIH · Lihuethin sample | 364 | 76.0% | 56 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| OAK to AUS · Austinthin sample | 359 | 76.5% | 42 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| OAK to ABQ · Albuquerquethin sample | 353 | 77.3% | 47 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| OAK to SBA · Santa Barbarathin sample | 292 | 87.2% | 56 min | 1.03% | A |
| OAK to EUG · Eugenethin sample | 278 | 77.5% | 46 min | 0.72% | 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 28 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am5,075 flights94.4%
- 8am–11am5,109 flights87.8%
- 11am–2pm5,774 flights78.8%
- 2pm–5pm4,520 flights72.7%
- 5pm–8pm4,894 flights70.8%
- 8pm–5am3,175 flights66.8%
Scale runs 60% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.4% of the time, against 66.8% for the overnight window. That is 28 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
Delays peak in May, when the on-time rate falls to 74.9%. January is the strongest month at 88.0%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 13 points.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
50% 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 291,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 50 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.
Cancellations are rare at 0.60%, 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.
5.2% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. 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 about 50 minutes kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
28,547 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 88.0% on time and May 74.9%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of May before you think about anything else.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at OAK
How often is Southwest Airlines at OAK 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 20.5% of the 28,547 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 50 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at OAK?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 89.5% on time across 1,380 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 79.5%, a gap of 10 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 Southwest Airlines at OAK?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 94.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 66.8%, 28 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 May delays on Southwest Airlines at OAK?
May is the weakest month at 74.9% on time, compared with 88.0% in January. Across the year that is 13 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.