Oakland, CA · departure reliability
OAK
Oakland International
- Departures
- 31,247
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 3
- US rank
- #50 by volume
Oakland
Oakland International lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 50 minutes on average. That rests on 31,247 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 1,624 at 87.0% on time.
SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 87.0% on time across 1,624 flights.
Key figures
On time
78.3%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
50 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.61%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
SkyWest
87.0% on time here
These figures cover 31,000 flights between September 2025 and August 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of OAK
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 87.0% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 77.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 27,640 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 27,640 | 77.2% | 50 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,624 | 87.0% | 54 min | 0.62% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,480 | 86.1% | 50 min | 1.62% | 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 20 busiest departures from OAK, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 78.3%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OAK to SAN · San Diego | 3,278 | 62.7% | 49 min | 0.98% | D+ |
| OAK to LAS · Las Vegas | 3,264 | 76.5% | 54 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| OAK to BUR · Burbank | 2,694 | 81.9% | 55 min | 0.93% | B+ |
| OAK to SNA · Santa Ana | 2,356 | 84.6% | 44 min | 0.85% | B+ |
| OAK to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,064 | 78.4% | 55 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| OAK to PHX · Phoenix | 1,907 | 77.5% | 55 min | 0.26% | B+ |
| OAK to SEA · Seattle | 1,896 | 77.3% | 47 min | 0.90% | B+ |
| OAK to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,621 | 87.8% | 61 min | 0.12% | A+ |
| OAK to DEN · Denver | 1,608 | 71.4% | 48 min | 0.37% | C+ |
| OAK to LGB · Long Beach | 1,568 | 85.7% | 48 min | 0.32% | A+ |
| OAK to ONT · Ontario | 1,458 | 80.2% | 49 min | 0.48% | B+ |
| OAK to PDX · Portland | 1,336 | 80.2% | 52 min | 0.45% | B+ |
| OAK to OGG · Kahului | 731 | 84.7% | 53 min | 1.37% | B |
| OAK to HNL · Honolulu | 729 | 79.6% | 51 min | 0.69% | B+ |
| OAK to LIH · Lihue | 646 | 82.0% | 56 min | 0.93% | B+ |
| OAK to BOI · Boise | 530 | 83.6% | 50 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| OAK to MDW · Chicago | 526 | 84.5% | 34 min | 0.19% | B+ |
| OAK to PSP · Palm Springs | 473 | 76.1% | 45 min | 0.85% | B+ |
| OAK to DAL · Dallas | 411 | 78.0% | 46 min | 0.97% | B+ |
| OAK to HOU · Houston | 376 | 76.0% | 41 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 31 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am6,110 flights93.5%
- 8am–11am5,728 flights86.4%
- 11am–2pm5,997 flights78.0%
- 2pm–5pm5,101 flights68.3%
- 5pm–8pm5,241 flights70.9%
- 8pm–5am3,070 flights62.4%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 62.4% on time, against 93.5% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 6,110 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter OAK departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from Oakland (OAK), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.5% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 62.4%, a wide gap of 31.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.5%
- 8–11am86.4%
- 11am–2pm78.0%
- 2–5pm68.3%
- 5–8pm70.9%
- 8pm–5am62.4%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 100%.
Across the year
When OAK runs late
OAK's year swings by 19 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.
June is the worst month at 69.7% on time, 19 points below January, the best at 88.4%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 2,771 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 84.0% on time and Friday the weakest at 73.7%, a spread of 10 points.
OAK month by month
Delay causes
Why OAK gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 49% of the 340,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%Late-arriving aircraft
- 34%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
49% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 340,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 41 to one. The split is drawn from 339,569 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 93.5% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.61%, below the national 1.89% 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.
5.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about 50 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
31,247 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 June 69.7%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 31,007 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
OAK delay questions
How often is Oakland (OAK) delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.7% of the 31,247 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 50 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Oakland (OAK)?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 87.0% on time across 1,624 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 77.2%, 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 93.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 62.4%, 31 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 Oakland (OAK)?
June is the weakest month at 69.7% on time, compared with 88.4% in January. Across the year that is 19 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
- OAK to SAN — San Diego62.7%
- OAK to LAS — Las Vegas76.5%
- OAK to BUR — Burbank81.9%
- OAK to SNA — Santa Ana84.6%
- OAK to LAX — Los Angeles78.4%
- OAK to PHX — Phoenix77.5%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record77.2%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record87.0%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record86.1%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- US airports with the biggest gap between their best and worst month
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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.