Airport month record

SANMAY

San Diego International in May 2026

Departures: 8,947
Month: May 2026
National, same month: 78.6%
Carriers: 8

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

SAN in May lands a B+, 2 points worse than the national rate of 78.6%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 8,947 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 832 at 90.3% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 90.3% on time across 832 flights.

On time

76.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 8,851 completed departures

Avg delay

54 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.66%

Nationally in May: 0.92%

Whole year

78.0%

SAN across all twelve months

These figures cover 8,947 departures from San Diego International in May 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

May next to SAN's other months

Against SAN's own year, May ran about a point worse than the twelve-month rate of 78.0%, which makes it number eight of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for SAN in May, at 0.66% against 1.25% across the year. Either side of it, April ran 80.8% on time and June 71.1%, 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	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 (this page)	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 May

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 20 points, against 22 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,322 flights87.6%
8am–11am1,828 flights83.1%
11am–2pm1,702 flights74.6%
2pm–5pm1,468 flights68.6%
5pm–8pm1,265 flights68.0%
8pm–5am1,362 flights78.2%

Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 87.6% of the time, against 68.0% for the evening window. That is 20 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 1,828 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 88.6% on time and Thursday the weakest at 65.7%. 23 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SAN in May

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 90.3% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 68.5%. 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 May 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	3,387	68.5%	49 min	0.32%	C+
SkyWest Airlines	1,450	76.6%	54 min	1.03%	B
Alaska Airlines	1,179	84.6%	51 min	0.68%	B+
United Airlines	933	78.4%	61 min	0.43%	B+
American Airlines	843	84.7%	71 min	1.19%	B
Delta Air Lines	832	90.3%	65 min	1.08%	A
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	179	70.1%	88 min	1.12%	C
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	144	89.5%	69 min	0.00%	A+

The spread between Delta and Southwest is 22 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 22 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of SAN in May

Routes from SAN in May 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SAN to PHX · Phoenix	554	76.1%	49 min	0.90%	B+
SAN to SFO · San Francisco	540	42.6%	63 min	0.93%	F+
SAN to DEN · Denver	515	82.3%	56 min	0.39%	B+
SAN to SMF · Sacramento	466	74.4%	48 min	0.43%	C+
SAN to SJC · San Jose	431	71.9%	41 min	0.23%	C+
SAN to SEA · Seattle	428	84.0%	53 min	1.87%	B
SAN to LAS · Las Vegas	403	67.9%	61 min	0.99%	C+
SAN to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	374	78.8%	63 min	2.14%	B
SAN to ORD · Chicagothin sample	364	83.6%	47 min	0.55%	B+
SAN to OAK · Oaklandthin sample	336	68.4%	44 min	0.30%	C+
SAN to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	240	83.2%	44 min	0.83%	B+
SAN to AUS · Austinthin sample	236	63.2%	48 min	0.85%	D+
SAN to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	224	89.7%	74 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	208	88.3%	76 min	0.96%	A+
SAN to ATL · Atlantathin sample	185	91.3%	105 min	0.54%	A+
SAN to BOS · Bostonthin sample	164	90.2%	55 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to FAT · Fresnothin sample	160	77.4%	42 min	0.62%	B+
SAN to PDX · Portlandthin sample	155	87.1%	38 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	152	79.9%	42 min	1.32%	B
SAN to IAH · Houstonthin sample	149	85.2%	61 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to EWR · Newarkthin sample	135	94.0%	131 min	0.74%	A+
SAN to DAL · Dallasthin sample	135	57.9%	51 min	0.74%	D+
SAN to STS · Santa Rosathin sample	125	79.2%	42 min	0.00%	B+
SAN to CLT · Charlottethin sample	124	87.9%	40 min	0.00%	A+
SAN to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	120	89.9%	109 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held SAN up in May

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 110,000 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%
National Airspace System
28%
Carrier
21%
Extreme weather
3%
Security
1%

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 110,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 16 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 110,418 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.66%, below the national 0.92% 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 7.1%. 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 roughly 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from SAN in May

For a May trip through SAN: expect 76.9% on time and 0.66% cancelled, going by May 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 April80.8%
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