San Jose, CA · departure reliability
SJC
Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International
- Departures
- 43,213
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 7
- US rank
- #43 by volume
San Jose
Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International lands a B+, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average. That rests on 43,213 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 2,995 at 92.4% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 92.4% on time across 2,995 flights.
Key figures
On time
81.9%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
52 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.68%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
92.4% on time here
These figures cover 43,000 flights between September 2025 and August 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 92.4% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 75.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 368 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 26,391 | 78.8% | 48 min | 0.56% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 6,558 | 86.9% | 63 min | 0.50% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 3,070 | 84.4% | 51 min | 0.91% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 2,995 | 92.4% | 73 min | 1.20% | A |
| American Airlines | 1,812 | 83.1% | 88 min | 1.49% | B |
| United Airlines | 1,510 | 87.8% | 62 min | 0.46% | A+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 368 | 75.8% | 56 min | 2.45% | B |
The spread between Delta and Frontier is 17 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 17 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 81.9%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SJC to SAN · San Diego | 5,004 | 68.3% | 47 min | 1.06% | C |
| SJC to LAX · Los Angeles | 4,470 | 85.0% | 54 min | 0.92% | A+ |
| SJC to SEA · Seattle | 4,422 | 82.7% | 52 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| SJC to LAS · Las Vegas | 3,661 | 80.4% | 57 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| SJC to PHX · Phoenix | 3,013 | 80.9% | 59 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| SJC to SNA · Santa Ana | 2,741 | 86.3% | 46 min | 0.77% | A+ |
| SJC to DEN · Denver | 2,546 | 80.6% | 55 min | 0.39% | B+ |
| SJC to BUR · Burbank | 2,137 | 84.5% | 50 min | 1.26% | B |
| SJC to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,794 | 91.9% | 77 min | 0.39% | A+ |
| SJC to PDX · Portland | 1,684 | 85.6% | 52 min | 0.12% | A+ |
| SJC to ONT · Ontario | 1,318 | 82.4% | 46 min | 0.15% | B+ |
| SJC to LGB · Long Beach | 1,251 | 84.4% | 45 min | 0.16% | B+ |
| SJC to AUS · Austin | 1,108 | 73.9% | 47 min | 0.36% | C+ |
| SJC to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,093 | 81.4% | 89 min | 1.92% | B |
| SJC to ATL · Atlanta | 898 | 92.9% | 68 min | 1.22% | A |
| SJC to HNL · Honolulu | 807 | 80.4% | 51 min | 0.12% | B+ |
| SJC to BOI · Boise | 663 | 82.6% | 49 min | 0.30% | B+ |
| SJC to MDW · Chicago | 526 | 84.6% | 31 min | 0.19% | B+ |
| SJC to MSP · Minneapolis | 511 | 91.1% | 78 min | 0.98% | A+ |
| SJC to OGG · Kahului | 470 | 91.9% | 78 min | 0.21% | A+ |
| SJC to DAL · Dallas | 409 | 83.3% | 49 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| SJC to HOU · Houston | 365 | 90.1% | 30 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 21 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am8,632 flights94.0%
- 8am–11am8,355 flights88.1%
- 11am–2pm7,652 flights82.5%
- 2pm–5pm7,606 flights73.4%
- 5pm–8pm7,173 flights73.3%
- 8pm–5am3,795 flights73.1%
Scale runs 65% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.0% of the time, against 73.1% for the overnight window. That is 21 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 8,632 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SJC departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from San Jose (SJC), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 94.0% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 73.1%, a wide gap of 20.9 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am94.0%
- 8–11am88.1%
- 11am–2pm82.5%
- 2–5pm73.4%
- 5–8pm73.3%
- 8pm–5am73.1%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 100%.
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.
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 3,980 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 87.3% on time and Friday the weakest at 77.7%, a spread of 10 points.
SJC month by month
Delay causes
Why SJC gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 405,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 405,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 19 to one. The split is drawn from 404,952 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 94.0% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.68%, below the national 1.89% 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 4.7% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% 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.
43,213 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. 42,834 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 arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 18.1% of the 43,213 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on San Jose (SJC)?
Delta Air Lines leads at 92.4% on time across 2,995 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 75.8%, a gap of 17 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 94.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 73.1%, 21 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.
Related
Where to go next
- SJC to SAN — San Diego68.3%
- SJC to LAX — Los Angeles85.0%
- SJC to SEA — Seattle82.7%
- SJC to LAS — Las Vegas80.4%
- SJC to PHX — Phoenix80.9%
- SJC to SNA — Santa Ana86.3%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record78.8%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record86.9%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record84.4%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record92.4%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- US airports with the biggest gap between their best and worst month
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Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.