Airport month record
SANJAN
San Diego International in January 2026
- Departures
- 7,406
- Month
- January 2026
- National, same month
- 79.2%
- Carriers
- 8
Historical statistics for January 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s January. For today’s conditions at SAN, see live FAA status.
SAN in January lands a B, 4 points better than the national rate of 79.2%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 7,406 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 728 at 86.5% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 86.5% on time across 728 flights.
Key figures
On time
83.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 7,185 completed departures
Avg delay
79 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.71%
Nationally in January: 4.71%
Whole year
78.0%
SAN across all twelve months
These figures cover 7,406 departures from San Diego International in January 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
January next to SAN's other months
Against SAN's own year, January ran 5 points better than the twelve-month rate of 78.0%, which makes it number two of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where January stands out: 2.71% of scheduled departures were called off, 2.2 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, December ran 75.4% on time and February 84.0%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.
| 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 (this page) | 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 January
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 14 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,089 flights91.0%
- 8am–11am1,668 flights88.4%
- 11am–2pm1,500 flights80.1%
- 2pm–5pm1,212 flights78.5%
- 5pm–8pm1,033 flights77.4%
- 8pm–5am904 flights81.1%
Scale runs 70% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.0% of the time, against 77.4% for the evening window. That is 14 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 1,668 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 89.6% on time and Friday the weakest at 77.0%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at SAN in January
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.5% of the time; American Airlines manages 78.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 693 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 2,747 | 82.5% | 60 min | 2.11% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,098 | 85.5% | 68 min | 3.92% | A− |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,065 | 82.1% | 70 min | 1.22% | B |
| United Airlines | 808 | 85.2% | 111 min | 1.24% | A |
| Delta Air Lines | 728 | 86.5% | 84 min | 2.06% | A |
| American Airlines | 693 | 78.6% | 106 min | 7.22% | B− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 149 | 76.4% | 116 min | 3.36% | B− |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 118 | 80.2% | 186 min | 5.93% | B− |
American Airlines cancels 7.2% 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 in January
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAN to SFO · San Francisco | 505 | 82.9% | 110 min | 1.58% | B |
| SAN to DEN · Denver | 500 | 86.6% | 69 min | 1.20% | A |
| SAN to PHX · Phoenix | 451 | 78.1% | 81 min | 2.66% | B |
| SAN to LAS · Las Vegas | 407 | 83.0% | 64 min | 1.47% | B |
| SAN to SMF · Sacramento | 375 | 82.4% | 58 min | 1.33% | B |
| SAN to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 334 | 86.7% | 83 min | 0.90% | A+ |
| SAN to SJC · San Josethin sample | 317 | 86.7% | 66 min | 2.52% | A |
| SAN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 274 | 77.0% | 105 min | 9.49% | B− |
| SAN to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 252 | 84.0% | 87 min | 0.79% | B+ |
| SAN to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 247 | 77.3% | 93 min | 1.21% | B |
| SAN to AUS · Austinthin sample | 224 | 87.3% | 48 min | 4.91% | A− |
| SAN to OAK · Oaklandthin sample | 222 | 83.6% | 70 min | 1.35% | B |
| SAN to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 196 | 87.0% | 79 min | 1.53% | A |
| SAN to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 179 | 81.7% | 59 min | 2.23% | B |
| SAN to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 178 | 84.8% | 131 min | 6.74% | B− |
| SAN to HNL · Honoluluthin sample | 155 | 79.2% | 101 min | 1.29% | B |
| SAN to FAT · Fresnothin sample | 145 | 89.6% | 45 min | 6.21% | A− |
| SAN to PDX · Portlandthin sample | 136 | 81.2% | 57 min | 2.21% | B |
| SAN to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 128 | 88.3% | 117 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SAN to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 123 | 74.1% | 55 min | 8.13% | C− |
| SAN to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 119 | 82.3% | 161 min | 5.04% | B− |
| SAN to IAD · Washingtonthin sample | 112 | 88.8% | 159 min | 4.46% | A− |
| SAN to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 99 | 84.0% | 99 min | 5.05% | B− |
| SAN to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 98 | 85.2% | 69 min | 9.18% | A− |
| SAN to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 96 | 83.3% | 123 min | 0.00% | B+ |
Delay causes
What held SAN up in January
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 50% of the 96,000 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.
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 15%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
50% 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 96,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 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 95,648 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.71%, against 4.71% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
6.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 7.6%. 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
What to do with this
Flying from SAN in January
For a January trip through SAN: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 83.1% on time with 2.71% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- 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 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.