Carrier performance at one airport
WN→SNA
Southwest Airlines at John Wayne Airport
- Departures
- 14,665
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 9
- Rank here
- #3 of 9
Southwest Airlines at Santa Ana lands a B+, 6 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in six 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 14,665 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 4,393 at 88.9% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs about a point ahead of the 81.7% weighted average across all carriers at SNA. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
83.2%
14,552 completed departures
Avg delay
50 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.68%
At SNA, this carrier only
Rank here
#3
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at SNA
These figures cover 15,000 flights between June 2025 and May 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 SNA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 88.9% of the time; Allegiant Air manages 72.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,176 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 4,393 | 88.9% | 48 min | 1.39% | A |
| Spirit Airlines | 986 | 88.1% | 77 min | 1.32% | A |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 14,665 | 83.2% | 50 min | 0.68% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 4,613 | 82.1% | 88 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 6,105 | 80.8% | 74 min | 0.66% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 6,700 | 78.8% | 91 min | 2.06% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,054 | 78.0% | 86 min | 1.61% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 5,672 | 77.8% | 72 min | 1.29% | B |
| Allegiant Air | 1,176 | 72.7% | 133 min | 0.94% | C+ |
The spread between Alaska and Allegiant is 16 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 16 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Where Southwest Airlines flies from SNA
Southwest Airlines operates 9 routes out of SNA 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNA to SJC · San Jose | 2,653 | 86.9% | 44 min | 0.79% | A+ |
| SNA to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,500 | 81.3% | 55 min | 0.40% | B+ |
| SNA to PHX · Phoenix | 2,424 | 83.6% | 48 min | 0.70% | B+ |
| SNA to SMF · Sacramento | 2,319 | 85.5% | 51 min | 0.86% | A+ |
| SNA to OAK · Oakland | 2,311 | 84.9% | 46 min | 0.95% | B+ |
| SNA to DEN · Denver | 1,536 | 77.3% | 57 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| SNA to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 364 | 77.4% | 37 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| SNA to AUS · Austinthin sample | 352 | 81.2% | 53 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 206 | 66.7% | 40 min | 0.00% | C+ |
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 20 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,086 flights95.6%
- 8am–11am2,946 flights91.5%
- 11am–2pm2,771 flights82.2%
- 2pm–5pm2,800 flights75.7%
- 5pm–8pm2,815 flights76.1%
- 8pm–5am1,247 flights77.8%
Scale runs 65% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 95.6% of the time, against 75.7% for the afternoon window. That is 20 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
July is the worst month at 78.3% on time, 11 points below January, the best at 89.4%. 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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 55%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
55% 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 121,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 35 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 0.68%, 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 4.3% 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.
14,665 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: take the 5am–8am departure, avoid July if the dates are flexible, and if two carriers are within a few dollars of each other, Alaska is the one with the record behind it. None of that guarantees an on-time arrival; it moves the odds by 20 points, which is the most any booking decision can do.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at SNA
How often is Southwest Airlines at SNA delayed?
About one flight in six arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 16.8% of the 14,665 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 SNA?
Alaska Airlines leads at 88.9% on time across 4,393 flights. Allegiant Air is at the other end on 72.7%, 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 Southwest Airlines at SNA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 95.6% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 75.7%, 20 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 July delays on Southwest Airlines at SNA?
July is the weakest month at 78.3% on time, compared with 89.4% in January. 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, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.