San Jose, CA · departure reliability
SJC
Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International
- Departures
- 43,699
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Carriers
- 7
- US rank
- #43 by volume
San Jose
Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International lands a B+, 6 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in six arrive 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 43,699 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 2,727 at 91.8% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 91.8% on time across 2,727 flights.
Key figures
On time
83.4%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
55 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.69%
National rate is 1.80%
Best carrier
Delta
91.8% on time here
These figures cover 44,000 flights between June 2025 and May 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 91.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 80.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 26,718 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 26,718 | 80.9% | 48 min | 0.56% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 6,970 | 88.4% | 65 min | 0.44% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 2,727 | 91.8% | 90 min | 1.32% | A |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,637 | 85.4% | 53 min | 1.40% | A |
| American Airlines | 1,774 | 83.3% | 95 min | 1.75% | B |
| United Airlines | 1,524 | 86.2% | 69 min | 0.52% | A+ |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 426 | 91.1% | 111 min | 0.00% | A+ |
Delta leads Southwest by 11 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
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 83.4%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SJC to SAN · San Diego | 4,990 | 73.8% | 46 min | 1.08% | C |
| SJC to LAX · Los Angeles | 4,405 | 87.3% | 54 min | 0.64% | A+ |
| SJC to SEA · Seattle | 4,379 | 83.4% | 54 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| SJC to LAS · Las Vegas | 3,941 | 79.7% | 59 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| SJC to PHX · Phoenix | 3,039 | 82.7% | 58 min | 0.66% | B+ |
| SJC to SNA · Santa Ana | 2,679 | 87.5% | 48 min | 0.93% | A+ |
| SJC to DEN · Denver | 2,594 | 81.5% | 58 min | 0.42% | B+ |
| SJC to BUR · Burbank | 2,226 | 83.9% | 51 min | 1.21% | B |
| SJC to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,817 | 92.3% | 90 min | 0.50% | A+ |
| SJC to PDX · Portland | 1,596 | 84.9% | 56 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SJC to ONT · Ontario | 1,317 | 84.1% | 48 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SJC to LGB · Long Beach | 1,222 | 85.7% | 50 min | 0.16% | A+ |
| SJC to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,177 | 80.9% | 96 min | 2.21% | B |
| SJC to AUS · Austin | 1,163 | 77.4% | 47 min | 0.26% | B+ |
| SJC to ATL · Atlanta | 900 | 92.9% | 98 min | 1.33% | A |
| SJC to HNL · Honolulu | 807 | 87.8% | 68 min | 0.12% | A+ |
| SJC to BOI · Boise | 677 | 86.8% | 52 min | 0.15% | A+ |
| SJC to MDW · Chicago | 550 | 83.4% | 39 min | 0.36% | B+ |
| SJC to MSP · Minneapolis | 509 | 90.7% | 76 min | 0.98% | A+ |
| SJC to DAL · Dallas | 487 | 86.0% | 60 min | 1.03% | A |
| SJC to OGG · Kahului | 471 | 92.8% | 78 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SJC to HOU · Houston | 365 | 91.2% | 28 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 19 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am8,818 flights94.3%
- 8am–11am8,357 flights90.2%
- 11am–2pm8,274 flights82.7%
- 2pm–5pm7,570 flights75.6%
- 5pm–8pm7,043 flights75.3%
- 8pm–5am3,637 flights75.7%
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 94.3% of the time, against 75.3% for the evening window. That is 19 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on.
Across the year
When SJC runs late
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 43,699 flights. The strip shows how much of SJC's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
June is the worst month at 80.2% on time, 9 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.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 88.7% on time and Friday the weakest at 79.3%. 9 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 47% 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.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
47% 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 18 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 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 94.3% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.69%, below the national 1.80% 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 8.2% 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.
43,699 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: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 75.3% on time against 94.3% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 19 points is the largest single thing you control here. Delta Air Lines is the strongest operator if the fares are close.
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 16.6% of the 43,699 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on San Jose (SJC)?
Delta Air Lines leads at 91.8% on time across 2,727 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 80.9%, a gap of 11 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 94.3% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 75.3%, 19 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 80.2% on time, compared with 89.3% in January. Across the year that is 9 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 Diego73.8%
- SJC to LAX — Los Angeles87.3%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record80.9%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record88.4%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record91.8%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record85.4%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.