Airport month record

SFOJUL

San Francisco International in July 2025

Departures: 12,958
Month: July 2025
National, same month: 71.1%
Carriers: 9

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

SFO in July sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points better than the national rate of 71.1%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 12,958 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 2,957 at 76.8% on time.

SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 76.8% on time across 2,957 flights.

On time

73.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 12,736 completed departures

Avg delay

67 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.14%

Nationally in July: 2.45%

Whole year

77.3%

SFO across all twelve months

These figures cover 12,958 departures from San Francisco International in July 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

July next to SFO's other months

Against SFO's own year, July ran 3 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 77.3%, which makes it number ten of twelve months, best first.

SFO month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025 (this page)	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	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 July

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 27 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,715 flights91.1%
8am–11am2,820 flights78.6%
11am–2pm2,183 flights64.2%
2pm–5pm2,181 flights68.4%
5pm–8pm1,273 flights74.6%
8pm–5am2,786 flights70.2%

Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 64.2% on time against 91.1% for 5am–8am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 2,820 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 81.2% on time and Thursday the weakest at 68.5%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SFO in July

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 76.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 62.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 704 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at SFO in July 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	5,112	75.7%	62 min	1.10%	B
SkyWest Airlines	2,957	76.8%	59 min	0.20%	B+
Delta Air Lines	1,233	76.3%	65 min	0.73%	B+
American Airlines	1,118	73.7%	115 min	2.42%	C
Alaska Airlines	1,041	68.4%	55 min	2.11%	C
Southwest Airlines	704	62.4%	57 min	0.71%	D+
JetBlue Airways	401	71.9%	78 min	3.24%	C−
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	308	56.7%	95 min	2.60%	D
Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample	84	68.3%	45 min	2.38%	C

JetBlue Airways cancels 3.2% 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 July

Routes from SFO in July 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SFO to LAX · Los Angeles	896	73.6%	58 min	0.33%	C+
SFO to SEA · Seattle	639	66.9%	49 min	2.03%	C
SFO to JFK · New York	582	69.2%	78 min	3.61%	C−
SFO to SAN · San Diego	582	67.5%	53 min	0.52%	C+
SFO to ORD · Chicago	534	71.2%	107 min	3.00%	C
SFO to LAS · Las Vegas	496	77.0%	82 min	1.41%	B
SFO to DEN · Denver	463	66.5%	68 min	1.73%	C
SFO to BOS · Boston	450	75.9%	67 min	0.22%	B+
SFO to SNA · Santa Ana	397	77.3%	51 min	0.25%	B+
SFO to EWR · Newark	397	62.8%	85 min	3.78%	D−
SFO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	368	71.8%	78 min	1.90%	C
SFO to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	356	71.7%	89 min	0.84%	C+
SFO to ATL · Atlantathin sample	319	75.9%	74 min	0.63%	B+
SFO to PDX · Portlandthin sample	315	81.2%	55 min	0.32%	B+
SFO to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	314	75.5%	61 min	0.00%	B+
SFO to IAH · Houstonthin sample	299	82.3%	54 min	0.00%	B+
SFO to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	267	65.2%	83 min	0.75%	C+
SFO to BUR · Burbankthin sample	243	78.2%	61 min	0.00%	B+
SFO to AUS · Austinthin sample	241	72.8%	55 min	2.90%	C
SFO to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	239	80.8%	58 min	2.09%	B
SFO to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	193	89.4%	53 min	0.52%	A+
SFO to DTW · Detroitthin sample	190	74.2%	54 min	1.58%	C
SFO to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	182	72.3%	95 min	2.20%	C
SFO to OGG · Kahuluithin sample	158	86.5%	40 min	0.63%	A+
SFO to MIA · Miamithin sample	155	72.1%	42 min	0.65%	C+

Delay causes

What held SFO up in July

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 222,000 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
43%
Carrier
28%
National Airspace System
27%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%

43% 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 222,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 35 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 221,757 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.14% against a national 2.45%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.57%.

8.8% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 12.1%. 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from SFO in July

For a July trip through SFO: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 91.1% on time, and with 8.8% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in March would.

San Francisco International (SFO), the whole year
SFO in August79.6%
SFO in September82.4%
SFO in October80.1%
SFO in November78.6%
SFO in December76.3%
SFO in January82.5%
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.

Key figures