San Diego, CA · departure reliability

SAN

San Diego International

Departures: 99,627
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Carriers: 10
US rank: #24 by volume

Terminal building and aircraft stands at a US airport

San Diego

San Diego International lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.6%. 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 99,627 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,577 at 86.8% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the ten carriers covered here at 86.8% on time across 9,577 flights.

On time

78.0%

Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination

Avg delay

62 min

Across delayed flights only

Cancelled

1.25%

National rate is 1.81%

Best carrier

Delta

86.8% on time here

These figures cover 100,000 flights between July 2025 and June 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 86.8% of the time; Hawaiian Airlines manages 60.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 487 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	37,660	73.5%	51 min	0.91%	C+
SkyWest Airlines	14,952	79.8%	58 min	1.77%	B
Alaska Airlines	12,721	78.8%	57 min	1.46%	B
United Airlines	10,504	81.3%	69 min	0.75%	B+
Delta Air Lines	9,577	86.8%	76 min	1.13%	A
American Airlines	9,358	80.6%	102 min	1.86%	B
Frontier Airlines	2,265	72.3%	82 min	2.03%	C
JetBlue Airways	1,646	81.5%	106 min	2.25%	B
Hawaiian Airlines	487	60.8%	78 min	1.64%	D
Spirit Airlines	400	82.2%	65 min	1.50%	B

The spread between Delta and Hawaiian is 26 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 26 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 78.0%.

Busiest routes from SAN by flight volume
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SAN to SFO · San Francisco	6,583	65.0%	61 min	1.26%	C
SAN to DEN · Denver	5,947	79.2%	60 min	0.89%	B+
SAN to PHX · Phoenix	5,920	75.8%	67 min	1.57%	B
SAN to LAS · Las Vegas	5,868	75.6%	61 min	1.33%	B
SAN to SMF · Sacramento	5,177	76.4%	47 min	0.81%	B+
SAN to SJC · San Jose	4,953	77.6%	50 min	0.87%	B+
SAN to SEA · Seattle	4,582	80.8%	64 min	1.66%	B
SAN to ORD · Chicago	3,807	78.0%	81 min	1.34%	B
SAN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	3,606	77.5%	84 min	2.91%	B
SAN to OAK · Oakland	3,195	74.5%	50 min	1.10%	C
SAN to SLC · Salt Lake City	2,961	84.4%	65 min	0.71%	B+
SAN to AUS · Austin	2,552	73.0%	53 min	0.90%	C+
SAN to LAX · Los Angeles	2,441	89.2%	77 min	0.94%	A+
SAN to JFK · New York	2,413	83.8%	95 min	2.65%	B
SAN to ATL · Atlanta	2,412	85.5%	66 min	0.70%	A+
SAN to BOS · Boston	1,818	77.9%	85 min	1.54%	B
SAN to PDX · Portland	1,777	84.1%	51 min	1.07%	B
SAN to HNL · Honolulu	1,768	72.1%	65 min	1.24%	C
SAN to FAT · Fresno	1,747	78.9%	46 min	1.77%	B
SAN to IAH · Houston	1,693	84.5%	72 min	0.53%	B+
SAN to DAL · Dallas	1,569	69.0%	48 min	1.85%	C
SAN to EWR · Newark	1,561	82.9%	83 min	2.24%	B
SAN to CLT · Charlotte	1,427	83.5%	106 min	1.12%	B
SAN to IAD · Washington	1,400	89.0%	78 min	0.57%	A+
SAN to MSP · Minneapolis	1,314	88.5%	81 min	0.76%	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 20 points, against 26 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am14,628 flights89.9%
8am–11am21,052 flights83.3%
11am–2pm19,449 flights75.4%
2pm–5pm15,525 flights69.9%
5pm–8pm14,463 flights70.8%
8pm–5am14,510 flights77.3%

Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.9% of the time, against 69.9% 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. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 21,052 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

When SAN runs late

SAN's year swings by 13 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.

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

June is the worst month at 71.1% on time, 13 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. June was the busiest month here, with 8,996 flights.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.0% on time and Friday the weakest at 73.1%. 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 1.34 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 1.34 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 split is drawn from 1,335,564 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 89.9% on time here.

Cancellations sit at 1.25% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.37%.

6.6% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. 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.

99,627 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 June 71.1%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 98,009 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

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 22.0% of the 99,627 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% 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 86.8% on time across 9,577 flights. Hawaiian Airlines is at the other end on 60.8%, a gap of 26 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 89.9% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 69.9%, 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 June delays on San Diego (SAN)?

June is the weakest month at 71.1% on time, compared with 84.0% in February. Across the year that is 13 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures