Oakland, CA · departure reliability
OAK
Oakland International
- Departures
- 32,217
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Carriers
- 5
- US rank
- #50 by volume
Oakland
Oakland International lands a B+, 3 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 roughly 55 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 32,217 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 1,380 at 89.5% on time.
SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 89.5% on time across 1,380 flights.
Key figures
On time
80.3%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
53 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.65%
National rate is 1.80%
Best carrier
SkyWest
89.5% on time here
These figures cover 32,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 5 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of OAK
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 28,547 | 79.5% | 50 min | 0.60% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,380 | 89.5% | 67 min | 0.36% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,112 | 84.1% | 48 min | 1.53% | B |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 583 | 88.4% | 170 min | 2.06% | A |
| Spirit Airlines | 383 | 85.3% | 78 min | 0.78% | A+ |
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
Busiest routes out of OAK
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 21 busiest departures from OAK, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 80.3%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OAK to LAS · Las Vegas | 3,412 | 79.9% | 54 min | 0.70% | B+ |
| OAK to SAN · San Diego | 3,195 | 68.8% | 49 min | 1.00% | C |
| OAK to BUR · Burbank | 2,813 | 82.4% | 53 min | 1.32% | B |
| OAK to SNA · Santa Ana | 2,387 | 86.2% | 45 min | 0.63% | A+ |
| OAK to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,122 | 80.8% | 52 min | 0.99% | B+ |
| OAK to PHX · Phoenix | 1,953 | 77.6% | 54 min | 0.20% | B+ |
| OAK to SEA · Seattle | 1,934 | 77.4% | 49 min | 0.88% | B+ |
| OAK to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,696 | 89.1% | 66 min | 0.12% | A+ |
| 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 | 1,291 | 80.8% | 54 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| OAK to HNL · Honolulu | 731 | 80.1% | 79 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| OAK to OGG · Kahului | 704 | 87.2% | 83 min | 0.99% | A+ |
| OAK to LIH · Lihue | 659 | 83.5% | 62 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| OAK to BOI · Boise | 600 | 83.5% | 55 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| OAK to PSP · Palm Springs | 487 | 78.5% | 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+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave OAK
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 27 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am6,455 flights94.0%
- 8am–11am5,747 flights87.8%
- 11am–2pm6,370 flights79.6%
- 2pm–5pm4,899 flights72.3%
- 5pm–8pm5,476 flights72.1%
- 8pm–5am3,270 flights67.1%
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 94.0% of the time, against 67.1% for the overnight window. That is 27 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
When OAK runs late
OAK's year swings by 12 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
Delays peak in May, when the on-time rate falls to 76.1%. January is the strongest month at 88.4%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 12 points.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 85.6% on time and Friday the weakest at 76.5%. 9 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why OAK gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 333,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 15%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% 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 333,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 31 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.
The largest share of delay minutes, 37%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 122,000 of the 333,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.65%, 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.
5.1% 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 roughly 55 minutes kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
32,217 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.
What to do with this
Flying out of OAK
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 88.4% on time and May 76.1%, a swing of 12 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of May before you think about anything else.
Common questions
OAK delay questions
How often is Oakland (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 19.7% of the 32,217 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Oakland (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 Oakland (OAK)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 94.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 67.1%, 27 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 Oakland (OAK)?
May is the weakest month at 76.1% on time, compared with 88.4% in January. Across the year that is 12 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.