Airport month record

SEANOV

Seattle-Tacoma International in November 2025

Departures: 12,616
Month: November 2025
National, same month: 79.4%
Carriers: 8

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

SEA in November lands a B, 3 points better than the national rate of 79.4%. About one flight in six 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 12,616 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 2,312 at 87.8% on time.

SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 87.8% on time across 2,312 flights.

On time

81.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 12,310 completed departures

Avg delay

58 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.69%

Nationally in November: 2.49%

Whole year

79.4%

SEA across all twelve months

These figures cover 12,616 departures from Seattle-Tacoma International in November 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

November next to SEA's other months

Against SEA's own year, November ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 79.4%, which makes it number six of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where November stands out: 1.69% of scheduled departures were called off, 1.7 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, October ran 82.9% on time and December 74.0%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

SEA month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	16,577	69.2%	57 min	1.38%	C
August 2025	15,970	73.6%	51 min	0.66%	C+
September 2025	14,552	82.9%	50 min	0.29%	B+
October 2025	13,859	82.9%	58 min	1.16%	B
November 2025 (this page)	12,616	81.9%	58 min	1.69%	B
December 2025	13,023	74.0%	59 min	1.02%	C
January 2026	11,927	81.6%	60 min	1.91%	B
February 2026	11,000	84.4%	56 min	0.78%	B+
March 2026	12,830	80.2%	64 min	2.23%	B
April 2026	12,864	85.6%	56 min	0.17%	A+
May 2026	14,564	82.2%	52 min	0.41%	B+
June 2026	15,402	78.1%	57 min	0.48%	B+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave SEA in November

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 12 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,481 flights90.1%
8am–11am2,745 flights83.5%
11am–2pm2,392 flights79.1%
2pm–5pm1,875 flights80.8%
5pm–8pm1,818 flights78.0%
8pm–5am2,305 flights81.5%

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 90.1% of the time, against 78.0% for the evening 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 2,745 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 86.7% on time and Monday the weakest at 71.9%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SEA in November

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 87.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 74.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 526 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at SEA in November 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Alaska Airlines	5,761	80.7%	47 min	1.23%	B
Delta Air Lines	2,611	82.6%	68 min	0.80%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	2,312	87.8%	55 min	3.55%	A−
United Airlines	656	83.6%	85 min	1.52%	B
Southwest Airlines	526	74.4%	52 min	2.28%	C
American Airlines	462	80.3%	120 min	2.38%	B
Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample	145	57.3%	99 min	1.38%	D
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	128	70.2%	49 min	3.12%	C−

SkyWest Airlines cancels 3.5% 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 SEA in November

Routes from SEA in November 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SEA to LAX · Los Angeles	604	84.8%	50 min	1.49%	B
SEA to PHX · Phoenix	596	70.9%	59 min	1.68%	C
SEA to SFO · San Francisco	567	72.2%	55 min	2.29%	C
SEA to ANC · Anchorage	483	84.9%	49 min	1.24%	B
SEA to DEN · Denver	466	86.1%	63 min	2.58%	A
SEA to LAS · Las Vegas	445	79.5%	51 min	1.57%	B
SEA to GEG · Spokane	423	88.0%	52 min	3.31%	A−
SEA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	411	79.7%	92 min	1.70%	B
SEA to PDX · Portland	403	85.6%	46 min	3.72%	A−
SEA to ORD · Chicago	390	74.7%	95 min	3.33%	C−
SEA to SJC · San Jose	374	84.9%	48 min	0.53%	B+
SEA to SMF · Sacramentothin sample	350	84.1%	38 min	0.57%	B+
SEA to SNA · Santa Anathin sample	330	84.4%	36 min	0.91%	B+
SEA to SAN · San Diegothin sample	319	71.2%	47 min	0.00%	C+
SEA to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	297	87.5%	44 min	2.69%	A
SEA to BOI · Boisethin sample	282	86.7%	57 min	1.06%	A
SEA to ATL · Atlantathin sample	256	87.0%	74 min	0.39%	A+
SEA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	234	83.5%	69 min	2.56%	B
SEA to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	234	64.8%	87 min	0.85%	D+
SEA to ONT · Ontariothin sample	211	82.8%	42 min	3.32%	B−
SEA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	202	88.5%	98 min	0.99%	A+
SEA to AUS · Austinthin sample	172	79.3%	69 min	1.16%	B
SEA to EWR · Newarkthin sample	171	83.6%	114 min	5.26%	B−
SEA to PSP · Palm Springsthin sample	166	81.2%	42 min	0.60%	B+
SEA to FAI · Fairbanksthin sample	166	88.6%	41 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held SEA up in November

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 130,000 reported delay minutes.

Carrier
40%
National Airspace System
31%
Late-arriving aircraft
23%
Extreme weather
6%
Security
0%

The largest share of delay minutes, 40%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 52,000 of the 130,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 129,855 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.69% against a national 2.49%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.74%.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.8% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 7.8% 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 SEA in November

For a November trip through SEA: expect 81.9% on time and 1.69% cancelled, going by November 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA), the whole year
SEA in July69.2%
SEA in August73.6%
SEA in September82.9%
SEA in October82.9%
SEA in December74.0%
SEA in January81.6%
SEA in February84.4%
SEA in March80.2%
SEA in April85.6%
SEA in May82.2%
SEA in June78.1%

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