Airport month record

SANAUG

San Diego International in August 2025

Departures: 8,406
Month: August 2025
National, same month: 77.4%
Carriers: 10

Historical statistics for August 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s August. For today’s conditions at SAN, see live FAA status.

SAN in August lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in four arrives 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 8,406 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 830 at 85.4% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 85.4% on time across 830 flights.

On time

76.7%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 8,319 completed departures

Avg delay

58 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.75%

Nationally in August: 1.08%

Whole year

78.0%

SAN across all twelve months

These figures cover 8,406 departures from San Diego International in August 2025. 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

August next to SAN's other months

Against SAN's own year, August ran about a point worse than the twelve-month rate of 78.0%, which makes it number nine of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for SAN in August, at 0.75% against 1.25% across the year. Either side of it, July ran 73.9% on time and September 81.9%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.

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 (this page)	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	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 August

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,261 flights86.3%
8am–11am1,779 flights80.7%
11am–2pm1,656 flights70.2%
2pm–5pm1,276 flights71.5%
5pm–8pm1,270 flights73.5%
8pm–5am1,164 flights78.9%

Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 70.2% on time against 86.3% for 5am–8am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 1,779 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 88.3% on time and Friday the weakest at 64.1%. 24 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SAN in August

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 85.4% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 69.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 990 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at SAN in August 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	2,940	75.4%	47 min	0.17%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	1,284	80.2%	52 min	0.39%	B+
Alaska Airlines	990	69.5%	56 min	1.82%	C
United Airlines	916	78.2%	67 min	0.76%	B+
Delta Air Lines	830	85.4%	51 min	0.48%	A+
American Airlines	787	75.7%	91 min	1.91%	B
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	259	68.1%	97 min	3.09%	C−
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	150	88.6%	123 min	0.67%	A+
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	143	80.4%	60 min	0.00%	B+
Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample	85	59.5%	42 min	0.00%	D+

The spread between Delta and Alaska is 16 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 16 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of SAN in August

Routes from SAN in August 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SAN to LAS · Las Vegas	656	77.0%	52 min	0.61%	B+
SAN to SFO · San Francisco	593	69.9%	57 min	0.84%	C+
SAN to PHX · Phoenix	473	73.7%	69 min	0.63%	C+
SAN to SMF · Sacramento	442	77.8%	42 min	0.23%	B+
SAN to SJC · San Jose	441	81.6%	47 min	0.00%	B+
SAN to DEN · Denver	436	72.6%	57 min	0.69%	C+
SAN to SEA · Seattle	426	69.3%	54 min	2.11%	C
SAN to ORD · Chicagothin sample	320	72.1%	103 min	0.94%	C+
SAN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	296	71.6%	77 min	4.39%	C−
SAN to OAK · Oaklandthin sample	282	76.8%	45 min	0.71%	B+
SAN to ATL · Atlantathin sample	229	82.6%	47 min	0.87%	B+
SAN to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	211	92.4%	91 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	211	84.3%	69 min	0.00%	B+
SAN to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	208	82.7%	67 min	0.00%	B+
SAN to AUS · Austinthin sample	182	78.6%	54 min	0.00%	B+
SAN to BOS · Bostonthin sample	175	84.5%	86 min	0.57%	B+
SAN to EWR · Newarkthin sample	155	77.0%	68 min	1.94%	B
SAN to PDX · Portlandthin sample	148	81.4%	62 min	2.03%	B
SAN to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	147	73.1%	42 min	0.00%	C+
SAN to IAH · Houstonthin sample	141	78.4%	67 min	1.42%	B
SAN to DTW · Detroitthin sample	131	79.1%	32 min	1.53%	B
SAN to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	124	84.4%	59 min	0.81%	B+
SAN to DAL · Dallasthin sample	119	71.2%	46 min	0.00%	C+
SAN to FAT · Fresnothin sample	119	71.2%	42 min	0.84%	C+
SAN to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	113	86.7%	28 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held SAN up in August

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 42% of the 113,000 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
42%
Carrier
31%
National Airspace System
24%
Extreme weather
3%
Security
0%

42% 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 113,000 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 112,864 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.75%, below the national 1.08% 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.

6.7% 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 last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from SAN in August

For a August trip through SAN: expect 76.7% on time and 0.75% cancelled, going by August 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

San Diego International (SAN), the whole year
SAN in July73.9%
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 April80.8%
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