Airport month record
SFOMAR
San Francisco International in March 2026
- Departures
- 12,171
- Month
- March 2026
- National, same month
- 75.7%
- Carriers
- 8
Historical statistics for March 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s March. For today’s conditions at SFO, see live FAA status.
SFO in March earns a B. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 8 points better than the national rate of 75.7%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 12,171 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,118 at 87.8% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 87.8% on time across 1,118 flights.
Key figures
On time
84.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 12,014 completed departures
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.02%
Nationally in March: 2.90%
Whole year
77.3%
SFO across all twelve months
These figures cover 12,171 departures from San Francisco International in March 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
March next to SFO's other months
Against SFO's own year, March ran 7 points better than the twelve-month rate of 77.3%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Either side of it, February ran 81.7% on time and April 74.7%, 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 | 11,113 | 82.5% | 85 min | 2.43% | B |
| February 2026 | 10,316 | 81.7% | 77 min | 1.21% | B |
| March 2026 (this page) | 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 March
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 14 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,406 flights92.4%
- 8am–11am2,722 flights84.8%
- 11am–2pm2,139 flights81.9%
- 2pm–5pm1,937 flights78.5%
- 5pm–8pm1,659 flights84.9%
- 8pm–5am2,308 flights83.7%
Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.4% of the time, against 78.5% for the afternoon window. That is 14 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 2,722 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 89.9% on time and Monday the weakest at 80.1%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at SFO in March
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 87.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 71.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 877 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 4,919 | 85.4% | 59 min | 0.63% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,800 | 85.7% | 77 min | 0.50% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,118 | 87.8% | 89 min | 2.77% | A |
| American Airlines | 993 | 81.7% | 137 min | 1.81% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 898 | 85.0% | 65 min | 1.11% | A |
| Southwest Airlines | 877 | 71.4% | 50 min | 1.03% | C |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 331 | 75.8% | 80 min | 1.21% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 235 | 78.9% | 61 min | 2.98% | B |
The spread between Delta and Southwest is 16 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 16 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of SFO in March
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SFO to LAX · Los Angeles | 927 | 85.4% | 65 min | 1.40% | A |
| SFO to JFK · New York | 533 | 83.7% | 89 min | 0.94% | B+ |
| SFO to SEA · Seattle | 528 | 86.9% | 60 min | 3.03% | A− |
| SFO to SAN · San Diego | 491 | 77.2% | 48 min | 0.81% | B+ |
| SFO to LAS · Las Vegas | 487 | 81.8% | 49 min | 0.41% | B+ |
| SFO to ORD · Chicago | 461 | 76.1% | 83 min | 2.60% | B |
| SFO to PHX · Phoenix | 452 | 84.1% | 90 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SFO to DEN · Denver | 448 | 83.3% | 64 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| SFO to EWR · Newark | 378 | 78.7% | 58 min | 1.32% | B |
| SFO to SNA · Santa Anathin sample | 345 | 89.8% | 44 min | 0.58% | A+ |
| SFO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 337 | 77.2% | 126 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| SFO to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 324 | 88.2% | 113 min | 0.93% | A+ |
| SFO to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 323 | 78.2% | 90 min | 0.31% | B+ |
| SFO to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 310 | 87.3% | 86 min | 0.97% | A+ |
| SFO to BUR · Burbankthin sample | 310 | 84.1% | 66 min | 0.32% | B+ |
| SFO to PDX · Portlandthin sample | 289 | 89.2% | 77 min | 0.35% | A+ |
| SFO to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 281 | 86.3% | 83 min | 2.85% | A |
| SFO to PSP · Palm Springsthin sample | 244 | 86.8% | 75 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SFO to HNL · Honoluluthin sample | 213 | 82.6% | 77 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SFO to AUS · Austinthin sample | 210 | 80.9% | 55 min | 0.48% | B+ |
| SFO to IAD · Washingtonthin sample | 209 | 86.7% | 47 min | 2.39% | A |
| SFO to RNO · Renothin sample | 185 | 84.3% | 53 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SFO to BOI · Boisethin sample | 178 | 89.3% | 93 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SFO to OGG · Kahuluithin sample | 158 | 92.2% | 56 min | 3.16% | A− |
| SFO to MIA · Miamithin sample | 154 | 81.3% | 53 min | 1.95% | B |
Delay causes
What held SFO up in March
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 139,000 reported delay minutes.
- 42%Carrier
- 37%Late-arriving aircraft
- 20%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
37% 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 139,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 21 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 138,624 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.02% against a national 2.90%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
5.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 9.5%. 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
What to do with this
Flying from SFO in March
For a March trip through SFO: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 84.0% on time with 1.02% 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 January82.5%
- SFO in February81.7%
- 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.