Airport month record
SNADEC
John Wayne Airport in December 2025
- Departures
- 3,825
- Month
- December 2025
- National, same month
- 73.2%
- Carriers
- 9
Historical statistics for December 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s December. For today’s conditions at SNA, see live FAA status.
SNA in December lands a B, 6 points better than the national rate of 73.2%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 3,825 flights, of which United Airlines flew 519 at 82.0% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 82.0% on time across 519 flights.
Key figures
On time
79.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,771 completed departures
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.15%
Nationally in December: 1.55%
Whole year
81.5%
SNA across all twelve months
These figures cover 3,825 departures from John Wayne Airport in December 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
December next to SNA's other months
Against SNA's own year, December ran 2 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 81.5%, which makes it number ten of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, November ran 80.8% on time and January 86.5%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 4,002 | 75.7% | 72 min | 1.42% | B |
| August 2025 | 3,918 | 80.6% | 74 min | 1.02% | B |
| September 2025 | 3,751 | 84.7% | 64 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| October 2025 | 3,871 | 82.9% | 74 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| November 2025 | 3,756 | 80.8% | 77 min | 1.46% | B |
| December 2025 (this page) | 3,825 | 79.4% | 74 min | 1.15% | B |
| January 2026 | 3,611 | 86.5% | 77 min | 2.13% | A |
| February 2026 | 3,343 | 85.7% | 73 min | 0.93% | A+ |
| March 2026 | 3,821 | 83.8% | 66 min | 1.20% | B |
| April 2026 | 3,686 | 82.5% | 69 min | 0.81% | B+ |
| May 2026 | 3,835 | 81.3% | 67 min | 0.78% | B+ |
| June 2026 | 3,822 | 75.1% | 75 min | 1.05% | B |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave SNA in December
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 17 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am592 flights90.6%
- 8am–11am732 flights82.5%
- 11am–2pm942 flights75.2%
- 2pm–5pm679 flights74.1%
- 5pm–8pm625 flights76.9%
- 8pm–5am255 flights80.8%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.6% of the time, against 74.1% for the afternoon window. That is 17 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 942 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 83.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.8%. 11 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at SNA in December
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 82.0% of the time; SkyWest Airlines manages 72.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 475 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 1,289 | 80.9% | 47 min | 0.47% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 536 | 78.1% | 115 min | 0.93% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 519 | 82.0% | 69 min | 0.39% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 475 | 72.2% | 96 min | 3.58% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines | 392 | 76.2% | 93 min | 2.30% | B |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 362 | 85.2% | 44 min | 1.10% | A |
| Allegiant Airthin sample | 90 | 68.5% | 53 min | 1.11% | C |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 89 | 76.4% | 71 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 73 | 97.3% | 50 min | 0.00% | A+ |
SkyWest Airlines cancels 3.6% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of SNA in December
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNA to PHX · Phoenix | 401 | 82.0% | 61 min | 0.25% | B+ |
| SNA to SFO · San Francisco | 397 | 71.2% | 97 min | 3.53% | C− |
| SNA to LAS · Las Vegas | 365 | 83.2% | 58 min | 0.27% | B+ |
| SNA to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 319 | 80.6% | 50 min | 1.25% | B |
| SNA to DEN · Denverthin sample | 315 | 77.4% | 63 min | 0.32% | B+ |
| SNA to SJC · San Josethin sample | 227 | 86.3% | 55 min | 0.44% | A+ |
| SNA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 224 | 72.6% | 131 min | 0.45% | C+ |
| SNA to SMF · Sacramentothin sample | 198 | 86.6% | 55 min | 1.01% | A |
| SNA to OAK · Oaklandthin sample | 197 | 83.1% | 46 min | 1.02% | B |
| SNA to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 177 | 82.2% | 73 min | 0.56% | B+ |
| SNA to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 160 | 79.2% | 98 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| SNA to PDX · Portlandthin sample | 150 | 88.4% | 42 min | 2.67% | A |
| SNA to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 93 | 77.2% | 78 min | 1.08% | B |
| SNA to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 93 | 89.2% | 21 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to STS · Santa Rosathin sample | 93 | 75.3% | 71 min | 1.08% | B |
| SNA to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 80 | 71.8% | 106 min | 2.50% | C |
| SNA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 44 | 78.0% | 102 min | 4.55% | B− |
| SNA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 37 | 69.4% | 120 min | 2.70% | C |
| SNA to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 31 | 77.4% | 22 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to AUS · Austinthin sample | 31 | 80.6% | 76 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 31 | 90.0% | 58 min | 3.23% | A− |
| SNA to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 30 | 56.7% | 81 min | 0.00% | D+ |
Delay causes
What held SNA up in December
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 57,000 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
- 29%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 5%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 57,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 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 57,352 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.15% against a national 1.55%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.26%.
7.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 10.0%. 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 SNA in December
For a December trip through SNA: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 90.6% on time, and with 7.5% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in January would.
Related
Where to go next
- John Wayne Airport (SNA), the whole year
- SNA in July75.7%
- SNA in August80.6%
- SNA in September84.7%
- SNA in October82.9%
- SNA in November80.8%
- SNA in January86.5%
- SNA in February85.7%
- SNA in March83.8%
- SNA in April82.5%
- SNA in May81.3%
- SNA in June75.1%
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.