San Diego, CA · departure reliability

SAN

San Diego International

Departures: 99,189
Period: June 2025 to May 2026
Carriers: 10
US rank: #23 by volume

Terminal building and aircraft stands at a US airport

San Diego

San Diego International lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.4%. Roughly one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 99,189 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,609 at 86.3% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the ten carriers covered here at 86.3% on time across 9,609 flights.

On time

78.2%

Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination

Avg delay

63 min

Across delayed flights only

Cancelled

1.24%

National rate is 1.80%

Best carrier

Delta

86.3% on time here

These figures cover 99,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 6 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 SAN

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.3% of the time; Hawaiian Airlines manages 58.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 562 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance by carrier departing SAN
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	37,160	74.7%	51 min	0.90%	C+
SkyWest Airlines	14,980	79.4%	58 min	1.73%	B
Alaska Airlines	12,447	78.4%	58 min	1.46%	B
United Airlines	10,464	81.4%	69 min	0.75%	B+
Delta Air Lines	9,609	86.3%	74 min	1.09%	A
American Airlines	9,361	80.5%	103 min	1.83%	B
Frontier Airlines	2,332	70.3%	91 min	2.14%	C
JetBlue Airways	1,642	81.1%	105 min	2.13%	B
Hawaiian Airlines	562	58.5%	72 min	1.42%	D
Spirit Airlines	539	81.0%	68 min	1.30%	B

The spread between Delta and Hawaiian is 28 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 28 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of SAN

Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from SAN, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 78.2%.

Busiest routes from SAN by flight volume
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SAN to SFO · San Francisco	6,543	67.7%	61 min	1.13%	C
SAN to LAS · Las Vegas	6,129	75.5%	62 min	1.24%	B
SAN to DEN · Denver	5,880	78.7%	63 min	0.92%	B+
SAN to PHX · Phoenix	5,869	76.2%	70 min	1.67%	B
SAN to SMF · Sacramento	5,176	77.0%	49 min	0.87%	B+
SAN to SJC · San Jose	4,980	78.2%	51 min	0.90%	B+
SAN to SEA · Seattle	4,573	80.5%	65 min	1.68%	B
SAN to ORD · Chicago	3,742	78.0%	83 min	1.28%	B
SAN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	3,551	77.3%	85 min	2.93%	B
SAN to OAK · Oakland	3,190	74.9%	49 min	1.19%	C
SAN to SLC · Salt Lake City	2,922	84.3%	65 min	0.62%	B+
SAN to AUS · Austin	2,529	74.3%	52 min	0.83%	C+
SAN to ATL · Atlanta	2,460	83.9%	65 min	0.73%	B+
SAN to LAX · Los Angeles	2,437	89.0%	73 min	0.94%	A+
SAN to JFK · New York	2,413	83.4%	90 min	2.74%	B
SAN to PDX · Portland	1,790	85.1%	52 min	0.95%	A+
SAN to BOS · Boston	1,787	77.9%	84 min	1.51%	B
SAN to HNL · Honolulu	1,756	71.1%	65 min	1.14%	C
SAN to FAT · Fresno	1,721	79.0%	47 min	1.74%	B
SAN to IAH · Houston	1,692	84.1%	73 min	0.65%	B+
SAN to DAL · Dallas	1,570	71.1%	49 min	1.72%	C
SAN to EWR · Newark	1,553	83.5%	83 min	2.25%	B
SAN to CLT · Charlotte	1,457	83.7%	106 min	1.17%	B
SAN to IAD · Washington	1,400	87.8%	78 min	0.57%	A+
SAN to DTW · Detroit	1,333	85.5%	52 min	1.05%	A

Departure window

The best time of day to leave SAN

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against 28 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am14,503 flights90.1%
8am–11am21,007 flights83.1%
11am–2pm19,493 flights75.0%
2pm–5pm15,250 flights71.2%
5pm–8pm14,567 flights71.3%
8pm–5am14,369 flights77.8%

Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.1% of the time, against 71.2% for the afternoon window. That is 19 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 SAN runs late

Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 99,189 flights. The strip shows how much of SAN's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.February best, June worst

June is the worst month at 73.4% on time, 11 points below February, the best at 84.0%. 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.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.0% on time and Friday the weakest at 73.5%. 11 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why SAN gets delayed

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 1.33 million 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
47%
Carrier
27%
National Airspace System
21%
Extreme weather
4%
Security
0%

47% 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 1.33 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 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 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 90.1% on time here.

Cancellations sit at 1.24% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.36%.

6.6% 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 an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.

99,189 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 SAN

Put together: take the 5am–8am departure, avoid June 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 28 points, which is the most any booking decision can do.

Common questions

SAN delay questions

How often is San Diego (SAN) delayed?

Roughly 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 21.8% of the 99,189 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.

Which airline is most reliable on San Diego (SAN)?

Delta Air Lines leads at 86.3% on time across 9,609 flights. Hawaiian Airlines is at the other end on 58.5%, a gap of 28 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 San Diego (SAN)?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.1% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 71.2%, 19 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 San Diego (SAN)?

June is the weakest month at 73.4% on time, compared with 84.0% in February. 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.

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.

Key figures