Airport month record

SANAPR

San Diego International in April 2026

Departures: 8,505
Month: April 2026
National, same month: 79.8%
Carriers: 8

Historical statistics for April 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s April. For today’s conditions at SAN, see live FAA status.

SAN in April lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 79.8%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 55 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 8,505 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 808 at 91.1% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 91.1% on time across 808 flights.

On time

80.8%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 8,448 completed departures

Avg delay

54 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.33%

Nationally in April: 0.90%

Whole year

78.0%

SAN across all twelve months

These figures cover 8,505 departures from San Diego International in April 2026. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.

Against the year

April next to SAN's other months

Against SAN's own year, April ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 78.0%, which makes it number four of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for SAN in April, at 0.33% against 1.25% across the year. Either side of it, March ran 78.2% on time and May 76.9%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

SAN month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	8,776	73.9%	62 min	1.32%	C
August 2025	8,406	76.7%	58 min	0.75%	B+
September 2025	7,875	81.9%	74 min	1.37%	B
October 2025	8,687	79.0%	63 min	0.92%	B+
November 2025	8,246	77.1%	65 min	2.81%	B
December 2025	8,228	75.4%	63 min	1.42%	B
January 2026	7,406	83.1%	79 min	2.71%	B
February 2026	7,008	84.0%	64 min	0.97%	B+
March 2026	8,547	78.2%	64 min	1.03%	B
April 2026 (this page)	8,505	80.8%	54 min	0.33%	B+
May 2026	8,947	76.9%	54 min	0.66%	B+
June 2026	8,996	71.1%	55 min	1.00%	C

Departure window

The best time of day to leave SAN in April

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against 18 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,227 flights92.4%
8am–11am1,705 flights87.0%
11am–2pm1,661 flights77.0%
2pm–5pm1,379 flights73.7%
5pm–8pm1,207 flights74.8%
8pm–5am1,326 flights79.6%

Scale runs 65% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.4% of the time, against 73.7% 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. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 1,705 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 89.3% on time and Friday the weakest at 74.9%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SAN in April

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 91.1% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 73.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 3,303 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at SAN in April 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	3,303	73.5%	45 min	0.21%	C+
SkyWest Airlines	1,204	83.9%	57 min	0.25%	B+
Alaska Airlines	1,169	86.8%	51 min	0.51%	A+
United Airlines	907	82.4%	62 min	0.33%	B+
Delta Air Lines	808	91.1%	62 min	0.00%	A+
American Airlines	804	87.1%	112 min	0.62%	A+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	166	73.0%	50 min	1.81%	C
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	144	80.4%	66 min	0.69%	B+

The spread between Delta and Southwest is 18 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 18 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of SAN in April

Routes from SAN in April 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SAN to PHX · Phoenix	520	78.2%	56 min	0.19%	B+
SAN to SFO · San Francisco	519	52.3%	53 min	0.39%	F+
SAN to DEN · Denver	507	86.3%	60 min	0.39%	A+
SAN to SMF · Sacramento	452	80.4%	37 min	0.44%	B+
SAN to SJC · San Jose	449	76.7%	50 min	0.45%	B+
SAN to SEA · Seattle	408	88.5%	64 min	0.25%	A+
SAN to LAS · Las Vegas	399	75.1%	51 min	0.00%	B+
SAN to ORD · Chicagothin sample	333	78.9%	105 min	0.30%	B+
SAN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	303	88.2%	120 min	1.65%	A
SAN to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	272	88.5%	49 min	0.37%	A+
SAN to OAK · Oaklandthin sample	260	75.6%	50 min	0.77%	B+
SAN to AUS · Austinthin sample	243	79.8%	59 min	0.00%	B+
SAN to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	207	95.7%	52 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	205	86.6%	73 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to ATL · Atlantathin sample	176	96.0%	51 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to FAT · Fresnothin sample	166	78.0%	45 min	1.20%	B
SAN to PDX · Portlandthin sample	164	91.4%	39 min	1.22%	A
SAN to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	150	71.0%	38 min	0.00%	C+
SAN to BOS · Bostonthin sample	144	76.9%	52 min	0.69%	B+
SAN to IAH · Houstonthin sample	142	92.1%	76 min	0.70%	A+
SAN to DAL · Dallasthin sample	130	68.2%	45 min	0.00%	C+
SAN to CLT · Charlottethin sample	123	87.8%	60 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to EWR · Newarkthin sample	120	94.1%	64 min	0.83%	A+
SAN to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	116	93.1%	45 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to STS · Santa Rosathin sample	114	83.0%	36 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held SAN up in April

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 88,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
48%
Carrier
28%
National Airspace System
22%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%

48% 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 88,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 35 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 87,722 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.33%, below the national 0.90% 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.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.9% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 6.4% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.

What to do with this

Flying from SAN in April

For a April trip through SAN: expect 80.8% on time and 0.33% cancelled, going by April 2026. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

San Diego International (SAN), the whole year
SAN in July73.9%
SAN in August76.7%
SAN in September81.9%
SAN in October79.0%
SAN in November77.1%
SAN in December75.4%
SAN in January83.1%
SAN in February84.0%
SAN in March78.2%
SAN in May76.9%
SAN in June71.1%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures