San Diego, CA · departure reliability
SAN
San Diego International
- Departures
- 101,169
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 8
- US rank
- #24 by volume
San Diego
San Diego International lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 101,169 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,581 at 86.3% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 86.3% on time across 9,581 flights.
Key figures
On time
76.3%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
61 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.27%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
86.3% on time here
These figures cover 101,000 flights between September 2025 and August 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 SAN
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.3% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 70.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 39,067 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 39,067 | 70.6% | 51 min | 0.92% | C+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 14,921 | 77.8% | 58 min | 2.01% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 13,373 | 79.0% | 57 min | 1.35% | B |
| United Airlines | 10,655 | 79.7% | 69 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 9,581 | 86.3% | 79 min | 1.17% | A |
| American Airlines | 9,387 | 80.6% | 103 min | 1.64% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,105 | 71.5% | 81 min | 1.95% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,643 | 78.8% | 97 min | 3.16% | B− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 3.2% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
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 76.3%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAN to SFO · San Francisco | 6,763 | 59.5% | 60 min | 1.29% | D |
| SAN to DEN · Denver | 6,134 | 78.4% | 63 min | 1.03% | B |
| SAN to PHX · Phoenix | 6,022 | 73.5% | 67 min | 1.59% | C |
| SAN to LAS · Las Vegas | 5,348 | 73.7% | 60 min | 1.50% | C |
| SAN to SMF · Sacramento | 5,181 | 74.5% | 47 min | 0.87% | C+ |
| SAN to SJC · San Jose | 4,973 | 74.5% | 50 min | 0.88% | C+ |
| SAN to SEA · Seattle | 4,646 | 81.1% | 63 min | 1.42% | B |
| SAN to ORD · Chicago | 3,944 | 77.6% | 79 min | 1.34% | B |
| SAN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,737 | 77.6% | 81 min | 2.30% | B |
| SAN to OAK · Oakland | 3,290 | 72.9% | 50 min | 1.00% | C |
| SAN to SLC · Salt Lake City | 3,100 | 83.0% | 63 min | 0.74% | B+ |
| SAN to AUS · Austin | 2,617 | 70.1% | 54 min | 0.99% | C+ |
| SAN to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,452 | 87.4% | 71 min | 0.94% | A+ |
| SAN to JFK · New York | 2,417 | 82.6% | 96 min | 3.27% | B− |
| SAN to ATL · Atlanta | 2,352 | 85.7% | 74 min | 0.64% | A+ |
| SAN to BOS · Boston | 1,881 | 75.5% | 84 min | 1.70% | B |
| SAN to PDX · Portland | 1,838 | 82.5% | 51 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| SAN to FAT · Fresno | 1,818 | 77.8% | 47 min | 2.04% | B |
| SAN to HNL · Honolulu | 1,776 | 72.0% | 64 min | 1.63% | C |
| SAN to IAH · Houston | 1,686 | 83.9% | 70 min | 0.30% | B+ |
| SAN to DAL · Dallas | 1,592 | 66.8% | 46 min | 1.63% | C |
| SAN to EWR · Newark | 1,557 | 81.9% | 90 min | 2.25% | B |
| SAN to IAD · Washington | 1,402 | 87.6% | 74 min | 0.78% | A+ |
| SAN to CLT · Charlotte | 1,386 | 82.4% | 102 min | 1.08% | B |
| SAN to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,300 | 89.1% | 83 min | 0.85% | 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 23 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am14,854 flights89.6%
- 8am–11am21,191 flights82.8%
- 11am–2pm19,647 flights73.5%
- 2pm–5pm16,196 flights67.1%
- 5pm–8pm14,451 flights67.9%
- 8pm–5am14,830 flights75.6%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.6% of the time, against 67.1% for the afternoon window. That is 23 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 21,191 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SAN 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 San Diego (SAN), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.6% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 67.1%, a wide gap of 22.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.6%
- 8–11am82.8%
- 11am–2pm73.5%
- 2–5pm67.1%
- 5–8pm67.9%
- 8pm–5am75.6%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When SAN runs late
SAN'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.
August is the worst month at 64.9% on time, 19 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. August was the busiest month here, with 9,379 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 83.0% on time and Thursday the weakest at 71.1%, a spread of 12 points.
SAN month by month
From Europe
Transatlantic routes into SAN
3 European airports send scheduled passenger flights to SAN, 1,832 flights a year in both directions by the DOT's international count. The DOT keeps no delay record for international flights; the UK routes carry the CAA's departure punctuality, and every route sets its departure airport's EUROCONTROL figures beside SAN's own record above.
Delay causes
Why SAN gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 1.44 million delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 1.44 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 to one. The split is drawn from 1,441,800 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 89.6% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.27% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.40%.
7.1% 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 an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
101,169 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: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 84.0% on time and August 64.9%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 99,477 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SAN delay questions
How often is San Diego (SAN) delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.7% of the 101,169 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% 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 9,581 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 70.6%, 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 San Diego (SAN)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.6% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 67.1%, 23 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 August delays on San Diego (SAN)?
August is the weakest month at 64.9% on time, compared with 84.0% in February. 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
- SAN to SFO — San Francisco59.5%
- SAN to DEN — Denver78.4%
- SAN to PHX — Phoenix73.5%
- SAN to LAS — Las Vegas73.7%
- SAN to SMF — Sacramento74.5%
- SAN to SJC — San Jose74.5%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record70.6%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record77.8%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record79.0%
- United Airlines on-time record79.7%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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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.