Airport month record
SFOJAN
San Francisco International in January 2026
- Departures
- 11,113
- 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 SFO, see live FAA status.
SFO in January lands a B, 3 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 an hour and a half on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 11,113 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,025 at 85.2% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 85.2% on time across 1,025 flights.
Key figures
On time
82.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 10,813 completed departures
Avg delay
85 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.43%
Nationally in January: 4.71%
Whole year
77.3%
SFO across all twelve months
These figures cover 11,113 departures from San Francisco 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 SFO's other months
Against SFO's own year, January ran 5 points better than the twelve-month rate of 77.3%, which makes it number two of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where January stands out: 2.43% of scheduled departures were called off, 2.4 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, December ran 76.3% on time and February 81.7%, 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 | 12,958 | 73.9% | 67 min | 1.14% | C |
| August 2025 | 12,594 | 79.6% | 66 min | 0.64% | B+ |
| September 2025 | 11,830 | 82.4% | 58 min | 0.25% | B+ |
| October 2025 | 12,774 | 80.1% | 61 min | 0.36% | B+ |
| November 2025 | 12,022 | 78.6% | 66 min | 1.86% | B |
| December 2025 | 11,975 | 76.3% | 81 min | 1.07% | B |
| January 2026 (this page) | 11,113 | 82.5% | 85 min | 2.43% | B |
| February 2026 | 10,316 | 81.7% | 77 min | 1.21% | B |
| March 2026 | 12,171 | 84.0% | 72 min | 1.02% | B |
| April 2026 | 12,401 | 74.7% | 63 min | 0.70% | C+ |
| May 2026 | 13,114 | 70.1% | 64 min | 0.79% | C+ |
| June 2026 | 13,415 | 67.1% | 67 min | 0.70% | C+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave SFO in January
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–8am1,374 flights91.2%
- 8am–11am2,502 flights83.5%
- 11am–2pm2,318 flights81.1%
- 2pm–5pm1,681 flights79.1%
- 5pm–8pm1,351 flights81.1%
- 8pm–5am1,887 flights80.3%
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 91.2% of the time, against 79.1% for the afternoon 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 2,502 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 90.9% on time and Monday the weakest at 76.1%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at SFO in January
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 85.2% of the time; American Airlines manages 77.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 820 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 4,560 | 84.3% | 69 min | 1.27% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,625 | 81.0% | 105 min | 2.63% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,025 | 85.2% | 72 min | 2.44% | A |
| American Airlines | 820 | 77.3% | 127 min | 8.78% | B− |
| Alaska Airlines | 784 | 81.8% | 68 min | 1.79% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 707 | 79.8% | 79 min | 1.27% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 375 | 81.9% | 72 min | 4.27% | B− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 217 | 77.1% | 91 min | 3.23% | B− |
American Airlines cancels 8.8% 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 SFO in January
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SFO to LAX · Los Angeles | 774 | 86.0% | 80 min | 1.16% | A |
| SFO to JFK · New York | 539 | 80.9% | 96 min | 5.75% | B− |
| SFO to LAS · Las Vegas | 522 | 80.8% | 77 min | 0.19% | B+ |
| SFO to SAN · San Diego | 504 | 80.3% | 81 min | 1.39% | B |
| SFO to SEA · Seattle | 485 | 83.6% | 88 min | 1.86% | B |
| SFO to DEN · Denver | 435 | 87.3% | 69 min | 0.23% | A+ |
| SFO to SNA · Santa Ana | 377 | 87.8% | 69 min | 1.59% | A |
| SFO to PHX · Phoenix | 376 | 81.6% | 80 min | 1.86% | B |
| SFO to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 329 | 72.8% | 60 min | 0.30% | C+ |
| SFO to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 326 | 76.7% | 79 min | 4.91% | B− |
| SFO to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 313 | 81.8% | 83 min | 5.43% | B− |
| SFO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 311 | 73.9% | 139 min | 9.65% | C− |
| SFO to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 303 | 85.7% | 63 min | 0.99% | A+ |
| SFO to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 270 | 82.5% | 73 min | 2.59% | B |
| SFO to PDX · Portlandthin sample | 254 | 85.8% | 100 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SFO to PSP · Palm Springsthin sample | 223 | 87.7% | 148 min | 4.93% | A− |
| SFO to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 217 | 86.4% | 86 min | 1.84% | A |
| SFO to BUR · Burbankthin sample | 216 | 80.3% | 77 min | 1.39% | B |
| SFO to IAD · Washingtonthin sample | 209 | 89.1% | 71 min | 3.83% | A− |
| SFO to AUS · Austinthin sample | 204 | 75.6% | 58 min | 3.43% | B− |
| SFO to HNL · Honoluluthin sample | 192 | 82.5% | 78 min | 1.56% | B |
| SFO to RNO · Renothin sample | 190 | 76.5% | 70 min | 1.58% | B |
| SFO to MIA · Miamithin sample | 153 | 82.2% | 103 min | 3.92% | B− |
| SFO to BOI · Boisethin sample | 151 | 79.5% | 89 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SFO to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 143 | 88.0% | 53 min | 0.70% | A+ |
Delay causes
What held SFO up in January
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 161,000 reported delay minutes.
- 40%Late-arriving aircraft
- 34%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
40% 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 161,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 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 160,907 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.43% against a national 4.71%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
7.4% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
What to do with this
Flying from SFO in January
For a January trip through SFO: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 82.5% on time with 2.43% 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 Francisco International (SFO), the whole year
- SFO in July73.9%
- SFO in August79.6%
- SFO in September82.4%
- SFO in October80.1%
- SFO in November78.6%
- SFO in December76.3%
- SFO in February81.7%
- SFO in March84.0%
- SFO in April74.7%
- SFO in May70.1%
- SFO in June67.1%
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.