San Francisco, CA · departure reliability
SFO
San Francisco International
- Departures
- 148,532
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 8
- US rank
- #11 by volume
San Francisco
San Francisco International sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 148,532 flights, of which United Airlines flew 62,048 at 79.8% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 79.8% on time across 62,048 flights.
Key figures
On time
75.3%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
68 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.00%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
79.8% on time here
These figures cover 149,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of SFO
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 79.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 54.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 9,968 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 62,048 | 79.8% | 58 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 31,536 | 73.8% | 74 min | 1.31% | C |
| Delta Air Lines | 13,973 | 75.8% | 67 min | 1.29% | B |
| American Airlines | 11,939 | 76.4% | 102 min | 1.84% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 10,629 | 75.0% | 55 min | 1.10% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 9,968 | 54.8% | 61 min | 0.90% | F+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 4,519 | 75.6% | 76 min | 2.21% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 3,581 | 62.7% | 81 min | 2.18% | D |
The spread between United and Southwest is 25 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 25 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of SFO
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from SFO, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 75.3%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SFO to LAX · Los Angeles | 11,437 | 70.9% | 58 min | 0.82% | C+ |
| SFO to SEA · Seattle | 6,821 | 72.3% | 56 min | 1.08% | C |
| SFO to JFK · New York | 6,798 | 78.0% | 80 min | 2.49% | B |
| SFO to SAN · San Diego | 6,723 | 62.2% | 60 min | 1.25% | D |
| SFO to LAS · Las Vegas | 6,140 | 70.2% | 65 min | 0.70% | C+ |
| SFO to ORD · Chicago | 5,650 | 75.0% | 85 min | 0.96% | B+ |
| SFO to DEN · Denver | 5,486 | 74.7% | 61 min | 0.46% | C+ |
| SFO to BOS · Boston | 4,815 | 74.5% | 74 min | 1.81% | C |
| SFO to PHX · Phoenix | 4,727 | 72.8% | 74 min | 0.72% | C+ |
| SFO to SNA · Santa Ana | 4,701 | 77.4% | 61 min | 1.43% | B |
| SFO to EWR · Newark | 4,348 | 76.8% | 78 min | 1.95% | B |
| SFO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 4,262 | 73.1% | 84 min | 2.25% | C |
| SFO to IAH · Houston | 3,578 | 84.0% | 50 min | 0.25% | B+ |
| SFO to PDX · Portland | 3,491 | 78.0% | 59 min | 0.32% | B+ |
| SFO to SLC · Salt Lake City | 3,431 | 75.0% | 70 min | 1.02% | B |
| SFO to ATL · Atlanta | 3,337 | 80.2% | 68 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| SFO to BUR · Burbank | 3,101 | 74.9% | 62 min | 1.06% | C |
| SFO to AUS · Austin | 2,786 | 71.8% | 65 min | 0.47% | C+ |
| SFO to IAD · Washington | 2,690 | 83.0% | 58 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| SFO to PSP · Palm Springs | 2,577 | 73.9% | 75 min | 1.01% | C |
| SFO to HNL · Honolulu | 2,477 | 80.0% | 62 min | 0.97% | B+ |
| SFO to PHL · Philadelphia | 2,082 | 85.2% | 86 min | 1.34% | A |
| SFO to RNO · Reno | 1,979 | 72.0% | 68 min | 1.06% | C |
| SFO to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,927 | 78.6% | 61 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| SFO to DTW · Detroit | 1,791 | 77.7% | 53 min | 0.61% | B+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave SFO
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 points, against 25 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am18,027 flights92.5%
- 8am–11am33,943 flights78.8%
- 11am–2pm25,826 flights67.8%
- 2pm–5pm24,206 flights67.5%
- 5pm–8pm18,013 flights74.5%
- 8pm–5am28,517 flights74.3%
Scale runs 60% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.5% of the time, against 67.5% for the afternoon window. That is 25 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 33,943 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SFO departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from San Francisco (SFO), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.5% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 67.5%, a wide gap of 25.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.5%
- 8–11am78.8%
- 11am–2pm67.8%
- 2–5pm67.5%
- 5–8pm74.5%
- 8pm–5am74.3%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When SFO runs late
SFO's year swings by 19 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
August is the worst month at 65.5% on time, 19 points below March, the best at 84.0%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. July was the busiest month here, with 13,841 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 80.8% on time and Thursday the weakest at 71.7%, a spread of 9 points.
SFO month by month
From Europe
Transatlantic routes into SFO
13 European airports send scheduled passenger flights to SFO, 15,387 flights a year in both directions by the DOT's international count. The DOT keeps no delay record for international flights; the UK routes carry the CAA's departure punctuality, and every route sets its departure airport's EUROCONTROL figures beside SFO's own record above.
- LHR to SFO · London4,340 flights
- FRA to SFO · Frankfurt2,330 flights
- CDG to SFO · Paris1,679 flights
- MUC to SFO · Munich1,415 flights
- AMS to SFO · Amsterdam1,107 flights
- ZRH to SFO · Zurich1,052 flights
- FCO to SFO · Rome810 flights
- DUB to SFO · Dublin670 flights
- CPH to SFO · Copenhagen625 flights
- BCN to SFO · Barcelona510 flights
- LIS to SFO · Lisbon422 flights
- ORY to SFO · Paris275 flights
Delay causes
Why SFO gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 2.44 million delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 23%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 2.44 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. The split is drawn from 2,440,531 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 92.5% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.00% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.33%.
8.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so 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.
148,532 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
What to do with this
Flying out of SFO
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. March runs 84.0% on time and August 65.5%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 146,550 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SFO delay questions
How often is San Francisco (SFO) delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.7% of the 148,532 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on San Francisco (SFO)?
United Airlines leads at 79.8% on time across 62,048 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 54.8%, a gap of 25 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on San Francisco (SFO)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.5% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 67.5%, 25 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are August delays on San Francisco (SFO)?
August is the weakest month at 65.5% on time, compared with 84.0% in March. Across the year that is 19 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- SFO to LAX — Los Angeles70.9%
- SFO to SEA — Seattle72.3%
- SFO to JFK — New York78.0%
- SFO to SAN — San Diego62.2%
- SFO to LAS — Las Vegas70.2%
- SFO to ORD — Chicago75.0%
- United Airlines on-time record79.8%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record73.8%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record75.8%
- American Airlines on-time record76.4%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.