Airport month record

SANMAR

San Diego International in March 2026

Departures: 8,547
Month: March 2026
National, same month: 75.7%
Carriers: 8

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

SAN in March lands a B, 3 points better than the national rate of 75.7%. Roughly one flight in five 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 8,547 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 802 at 83.4% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 83.4% on time across 802 flights.

On time

78.2%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 8,410 completed departures

Avg delay

64 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.03%

Nationally in March: 2.90%

Whole year

78.0%

SAN across all twelve months

These figures cover 8,547 departures from San Diego International in March 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

March next to SAN's other months

Against SAN's own year, March ran level with the twelve-month rate of 78.0%, which makes it number six of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, February ran 84.0% on time and April 80.8%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better 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 (this page)	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 March

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 12 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,196 flights86.1%
8am–11am1,794 flights80.9%
11am–2pm1,660 flights77.7%
2pm–5pm1,255 flights75.3%
5pm–8pm1,250 flights75.3%
8pm–5am1,392 flights74.0%

Scale runs 65% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 86.1% of the time, against 74.0% for the overnight window. That is 12 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 1,794 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 86.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.3%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SAN in March

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 83.4% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 75.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 3,387 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at SAN in March 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	3,387	75.5%	48 min	0.74%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	1,211	82.0%	52 min	0.99%	B+
Alaska Airlines	1,106	76.8%	57 min	1.45%	B
United Airlines	885	81.6%	80 min	0.90%	B+
American Airlines	836	78.3%	118 min	0.96%	B+
Delta Air Lines	802	83.4%	80 min	2.12%	B
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	169	74.1%	92 min	1.18%	C
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	151	76.7%	136 min	0.00%	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 March

Routes from SAN in March 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SAN to DEN · Denver	538	81.9%	70 min	1.30%	B
SAN to PHX · Phoenix	505	79.1%	71 min	0.40%	B+
SAN to SFO · San Francisco	490	83.1%	49 min	0.82%	B+
SAN to SMF · Sacramento	469	81.2%	45 min	0.43%	B+
SAN to LAS · Las Vegas	459	80.0%	57 min	0.65%	B+
SAN to SJC · San Jose	406	82.3%	50 min	0.99%	B+
SAN to SEA · Seattle	388	79.4%	83 min	2.32%	B
SAN to ORD · Chicagothin sample	332	74.8%	93 min	2.71%	C
SAN to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	294	86.9%	78 min	0.68%	A+
SAN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	292	78.0%	101 min	0.68%	B+
SAN to AUS · Austinthin sample	254	62.8%	49 min	0.39%	D+
SAN to OAK · Oaklandthin sample	229	81.5%	58 min	0.87%	B+
SAN to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	202	89.1%	65 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	201	79.6%	64 min	1.49%	B
SAN to ATL · Atlantathin sample	187	72.8%	74 min	1.07%	C
SAN to PDX · Portlandthin sample	172	91.2%	59 min	1.16%	A
SAN to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	155	73.5%	50 min	0.65%	C+
SAN to IAH · Houstonthin sample	152	80.5%	112 min	1.32%	B
SAN to BOS · Bostonthin sample	151	72.8%	120 min	0.00%	C+
SAN to FAT · Fresnothin sample	144	86.0%	37 min	0.69%	A+
SAN to DAL · Dallasthin sample	138	58.5%	45 min	0.72%	D+
SAN to CLT · Charlottethin sample	137	75.4%	99 min	0.73%	B+
SAN to EWR · Newarkthin sample	124	73.2%	86 min	0.00%	C+
SAN to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	116	80.5%	81 min	0.86%	B+
SAN to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	114	91.8%	61 min	3.51%	A−

Delay causes

What held SAN up in March

Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 118,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
41%
Carrier
33%
National Airspace System
22%
Extreme weather
5%
Security
0%

41% 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 118,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 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 118,034 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.03% against a national 2.90%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.57%.

6.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 9.5%. 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 March

For a March trip through SAN: expect 78.2% on time and 1.03% cancelled, going by March 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 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