San Jose, CA · departure reliability

SJC

Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International

Departures: 43,478
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Carriers: 7
US rank: #43 by volume

Terminal building and aircraft stands at a US airport

San Jose

Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International lands a B+, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in six arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 43,478 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 2,820 at 92.2% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 92.2% on time across 2,820 flights.

On time

82.9%

Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination

Avg delay

54 min

Across delayed flights only

Cancelled

0.69%

National rate is 1.81%

Best carrier

Delta

92.2% on time here

These figures cover 43,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 7 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines run best out of SJC

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 92.2% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 80.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 26,558 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance by carrier departing SJC
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	26,558	80.0%	48 min	0.55%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	6,866	88.4%	64 min	0.44%	A+
Delta Air Lines	2,820	92.2%	76 min	1.31%	A
Alaska Airlines	2,763	85.3%	51 min	1.19%	A
American Airlines	1,783	83.2%	100 min	1.79%	B
United Airlines	1,516	86.5%	63 min	0.53%	A+
Hawaiian Airlines	366	92.1%	102 min	0.00%	A+

The spread between Delta and Southwest is 12 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 12 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of SJC

Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 22 busiest departures from SJC, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 82.9%.

Busiest routes from SJC by flight volume
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SJC to SAN · San Diego	4,979	72.4%	46 min	1.02%	C
SJC to LAX · Los Angeles	4,433	86.6%	54 min	0.77%	A+
SJC to SEA · Seattle	4,368	83.3%	52 min	0.78%	B+
SJC to LAS · Las Vegas	3,829	79.7%	58 min	0.52%	B+
SJC to PHX · Phoenix	3,031	82.0%	59 min	0.73%	B+
SJC to SNA · Santa Ana	2,699	86.8%	47 min	0.82%	A+
SJC to DEN · Denver	2,579	81.0%	56 min	0.43%	B+
SJC to BUR · Burbank	2,194	84.5%	50 min	1.28%	B
SJC to SLC · Salt Lake City	1,808	92.2%	84 min	0.44%	A+
SJC to PDX · Portland	1,621	84.9%	54 min	0.00%	B+
SJC to ONT · Ontario	1,316	83.5%	46 min	0.08%	B+
SJC to LGB · Long Beach	1,229	85.5%	48 min	0.16%	A+
SJC to AUS · Austin	1,143	76.2%	46 min	0.26%	B+
SJC to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	1,138	80.7%	101 min	2.37%	B
SJC to ATL · Atlanta	900	93.1%	69 min	1.33%	A
SJC to HNL · Honolulu	808	85.9%	56 min	0.12%	A+
SJC to BOI · Boise	676	85.2%	51 min	0.15%	A+
SJC to MDW · Chicago	538	83.4%	36 min	0.37%	B+
SJC to MSP · Minneapolis	509	90.5%	75 min	0.98%	A+
SJC to OGG · Kahului	470	92.7%	77 min	0.21%	A+
SJC to DAL · Dallas	458	84.7%	56 min	0.87%	B+
SJC to HOU · Houston	365	90.6%	29 min	0.27%	A+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave SJC

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 20 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am8,755 flights94.2%
8am–11am8,369 flights89.4%
11am–2pm8,028 flights82.7%
2pm–5pm7,582 flights74.8%
5pm–8pm7,054 flights74.9%
8pm–5am3,690 flights74.2%

Scale runs 65% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.2% of the time, against 74.2% for the overnight window. That is 20 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 8,755 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

When SJC runs late

SJC's year swings by 15 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.

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.January best, June worst

June is the worst month at 74.3% on time, 15 points below January, the best at 89.3%. 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 4,120 flights.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 88.0% on time and Friday the weakest at 78.5%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why SJC gets delayed

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 394,000 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
48%
Carrier
30%
National Airspace System
19%
Extreme weather
3%
Security
0%

48% 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 394,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 17 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 393,796 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 94.2% on time here.

Cancellations are rare at 0.69%, below the national 1.81% 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.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.4% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.

43,478 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 SJC

Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 89.3% on time and June 74.3%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 43,106 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Common questions

SJC delay questions

How often is San Jose (SJC) delayed?

About one flight in six arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.1% of the 43,478 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average.

Which airline is most reliable on San Jose (SJC)?

Delta Air Lines leads at 92.2% on time across 2,820 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 80.0%, a gap of 12 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 Jose (SJC)?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 94.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 74.2%, 20 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 June delays on San Jose (SJC)?

June is the weakest month at 74.3% on time, compared with 89.3% in January. Across the year that is 15 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures