Airport month record

SANFEB

San Diego International in February 2026

Departures: 7,008
Month: February 2026
National, same month: 80.2%
Carriers: 8

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

SAN in February earns a B+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 4 points better than the national rate of 80.2%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 7,008 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 665 at 89.7% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 89.7% on time across 665 flights.

On time

84.0%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 6,921 completed departures

Avg delay

64 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.97%

Nationally in February: 2.25%

Whole year

78.0%

SAN across all twelve months

These figures cover 7,008 departures from San Diego International in February 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

February next to SAN's other months

Against SAN's own year, February ran 6 points better than the twelve-month rate of 78.0%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Either side of it, January ran 83.1% on time and March 78.2%, 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 (this page)	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 February

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 18 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,029 flights93.3%
8am–11am1,557 flights89.0%
11am–2pm1,367 flights83.5%
2pm–5pm1,125 flights75.4%
5pm–8pm991 flights77.4%
8pm–5am939 flights83.5%

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 93.3% of the time, against 75.4% for the afternoon window. That is 18 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 1,557 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 88.9% on time and Thursday the weakest at 79.4%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SAN in February

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 89.7% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 81.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,694 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at SAN in February 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	2,694	81.3%	48 min	0.37%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	1,055	83.2%	63 min	0.85%	B+
Alaska Airlines	934	85.8%	59 min	1.07%	A
United Airlines	733	87.3%	67 min	0.82%	A+
American Airlines	690	84.9%	114 min	1.16%	B
Delta Air Lines	665	89.7%	96 min	1.95%	A
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	126	84.7%	72 min	0.79%	B+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	111	81.0%	152 min	9.91%	B−

Delta leads Southwest by 8 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of SAN in February

Routes from SAN in February 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SAN to DEN · Denver	460	84.1%	64 min	0.22%	B+
SAN to SFO · San Francisco	443	76.8%	63 min	0.68%	B+
SAN to PHX · Phoenix	425	84.1%	91 min	0.94%	B+
SAN to LAS · Las Vegas	393	82.7%	60 min	0.00%	B+
SAN to SMF · Sacramento	382	79.3%	49 min	0.00%	B+
SAN to SJC · San Josethin sample	309	85.4%	59 min	0.32%	A+
SAN to SEA · Seattlethin sample	305	92.1%	51 min	0.66%	A+
SAN to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	259	88.2%	96 min	1.16%	A
SAN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	248	81.6%	65 min	0.81%	B+
SAN to ORD · Chicagothin sample	242	85.9%	96 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to OAK · Oaklandthin sample	220	81.8%	41 min	0.00%	B+
SAN to AUS · Austinthin sample	215	81.9%	54 min	0.00%	B+
SAN to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	185	89.7%	113 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to ATL · Atlantathin sample	165	89.7%	103 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	154	85.5%	201 min	10.39%	A−
SAN to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	142	69.1%	82 min	2.11%	C
SAN to IAH · Houstonthin sample	127	92.1%	39 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to DAL · Dallasthin sample	122	72.5%	36 min	0.82%	C+
SAN to FAT · Fresnothin sample	122	86.7%	37 min	1.64%	A
SAN to PDX · Portlandthin sample	118	90.7%	60 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to BOS · Bostonthin sample	112	75.0%	47 min	7.14%	B−
SAN to CLT · Charlottethin sample	109	86.9%	105 min	1.83%	A
SAN to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	100	94.9%	22 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to EWR · Newarkthin sample	100	92.4%	47 min	8.00%	A−
SAN to RNO · Renothin sample	88	87.2%	36 min	2.27%	A

Delay causes

What held SAN up in February

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 42% of the 71,000 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
38%
National Airspace System
16%
Extreme weather
4%
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 71,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 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 71,282 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 0.97% against a national 2.25%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.7% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 6.5% 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 February

For a February trip through SAN: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 84.0% on time with 0.97% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular 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 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