Airport month record

SFOOCT

San Francisco International in October 2025

Departures: 12,774
Month: October 2025
National, same month: 79.7%
Carriers: 9

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

SFO in October lands a B+, level with the national rate of 79.7%. About one flight in five 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 12,774 flights, of which United Airlines flew 5,350 at 85.3% on time.

United Airlines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 85.3% on time across 5,350 flights.

On time

80.1%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 12,697 completed departures

Avg delay

61 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.36%

Nationally in October: 0.53%

Whole year

77.3%

SFO across all twelve months

These figures cover 12,774 departures from San Francisco International in October 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

October next to SFO's other months

Against SFO's own year, October ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 77.3%, which makes it number five of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for SFO in October, at 0.36% against 1.00% across the year. Either side of it, September ran 82.4% on time and November 78.6%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.

SFO month by month
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 (this page)	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 October

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 21 points, against 28 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,642 flights93.6%
8am–11am2,848 flights83.2%
11am–2pm2,510 flights72.7%
2pm–5pm1,902 flights76.5%
5pm–8pm1,371 flights79.0%
8pm–5am2,501 flights78.6%

Scale runs 65% to 100%. 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 72.7% on time against 93.6% 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 2,848 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 86.3% on time and Friday the weakest at 77.4%. 9 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SFO in October

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 85.3% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 57.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 799 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at SFO in October 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	5,350	85.3%	53 min	0.17%	A+
SkyWest Airlines	2,751	78.4%	57 min	0.25%	B+
Delta Air Lines	1,233	82.5%	74 min	0.41%	B+
American Airlines	1,049	81.4%	95 min	0.76%	B+
Alaska Airlines	818	77.0%	59 min	1.47%	B
Southwest Airlines	799	57.5%	53 min	0.25%	D+
JetBlue Airways	383	79.6%	92 min	0.52%	B+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	300	68.0%	63 min	0.00%	C+
Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample	91	53.3%	89 min	1.10%	F

The spread between United and Southwest is 28 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 28 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of SFO in October

Routes from SFO in October 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SFO to LAX · Los Angeles	991	73.6%	52 min	0.00%	C+
SFO to SAN · San Diego	659	65.1%	57 min	1.06%	C
SFO to JFK · New York	611	84.6%	90 min	0.65%	B+
SFO to SEA · Seattle	585	73.2%	52 min	1.03%	C
SFO to ORD · Chicago	524	81.4%	84 min	0.38%	B+
SFO to LAS · Las Vegas	522	75.9%	65 min	0.57%	B+
SFO to DEN · Denver	460	81.1%	42 min	0.00%	B+
SFO to SNA · Santa Ana	448	82.2%	47 min	0.45%	B+
SFO to BOS · Boston	428	71.1%	90 min	0.70%	C+
SFO to EWR · Newark	389	77.9%	86 min	1.29%	B
SFO to PHX · Phoenix	367	72.7%	66 min	0.00%	C+
SFO to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	354	80.8%	84 min	1.98%	B
SFO to PDX · Portlandthin sample	344	82.8%	45 min	0.00%	B+
SFO to IAH · Houstonthin sample	306	90.1%	39 min	0.33%	A+
SFO to ATL · Atlantathin sample	303	87.5%	71 min	0.00%	A+
SFO to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	284	81.7%	45 min	0.00%	B+
SFO to BUR · Burbankthin sample	254	86.6%	69 min	0.00%	A+
SFO to AUS · Austinthin sample	253	79.6%	61 min	0.79%	B+
SFO to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	247	89.0%	68 min	0.40%	A+
SFO to PSP · Palm Springsthin sample	234	77.7%	61 min	0.43%	B+
SFO to HNL · Honoluluthin sample	184	73.8%	65 min	0.54%	C+
SFO to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	180	86.1%	32 min	0.00%	A+
SFO to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	170	94.7%	70 min	0.00%	A+
SFO to DTW · Detroitthin sample	154	83.1%	40 min	0.00%	B+
SFO to CLT · Charlottethin sample	148	91.9%	87 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held SFO up in October

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 42% of the 155,000 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
42%
Carrier
29%
National Airspace System
26%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

42% 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 155,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 20 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 154,691 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.36%, below the national 0.53% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.

6.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.3%. 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 October

For a October trip through SFO: expect 80.1% on time and 0.36% cancelled, going by October 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

San Francisco International (SFO), the whole year
SFO in July73.9%
SFO in August79.6%
SFO in September82.4%
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