Airport month record
SNAJAN
John Wayne Airport in January 2026
- Departures
- 3,611
- Month
- January 2026
- National, same month
- 79.2%
- Carriers
- 9
Historical statistics for January 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s January. For today’s conditions at SNA, see live FAA status.
SNA in January earns an A. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 7 points better than the national rate of 79.2%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 3,611 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 368 at 93.4% on time.
Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 93.4% on time across 368 flights.
Key figures
On time
86.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,529 completed departures
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.13%
Nationally in January: 4.71%
Whole year
81.5%
SNA across all twelve months
These figures cover 3,611 departures from John Wayne Airport in January 2026. 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
January next to SNA's other months
Against SNA's own year, January ran 5 points better than the twelve-month rate of 81.5%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations are where January stands out: 2.13% of scheduled departures were called off, 2.0 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, December ran 79.4% on time and February 85.7%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse 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 | 3,825 | 79.4% | 74 min | 1.15% | B |
| January 2026 (this page) | 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 January
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 3,611 flights.
- 5am–8am541 flights91.0%
- 8am–11am676 flights90.7%
- 11am–2pm923 flights82.3%
- 2pm–5pm697 flights86.4%
- 5pm–8pm629 flights83.5%
- 8pm–5am145 flights90.0%
Scale runs 75% to 95%. 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 82.3% on time against 91.0% 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 923 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 91.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 81.6%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at SNA in January
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 93.4% of the time; American Airlines manages 80.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 561 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 1,093 | 89.4% | 52 min | 0.27% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 561 | 80.8% | 83 min | 7.84% | B− |
| United Airlines | 496 | 84.9% | 101 min | 1.01% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 487 | 89.3% | 78 min | 1.64% | A |
| Alaska Airlines | 368 | 93.4% | 42 min | 1.63% | A |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 347 | 77.5% | 80 min | 2.59% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 97 | 80.4% | 129 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 85 | 92.9% | 50 min | 1.18% | A |
| Allegiant Airthin sample | 77 | 84.0% | 100 min | 1.30% | B |
American Airlines cancels 7.8% 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 January
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNA to PHX · Phoenix | 381 | 82.7% | 70 min | 1.31% | B |
| SNA to SFO · San Francisco | 379 | 87.3% | 113 min | 1.85% | A |
| SNA to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 357 | 89.0% | 64 min | 0.28% | A+ |
| SNA to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 312 | 89.9% | 53 min | 1.60% | A |
| SNA to DEN · Denverthin sample | 276 | 88.4% | 109 min | 0.36% | A+ |
| SNA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 241 | 84.8% | 75 min | 12.45% | B− |
| SNA to SJC · San Josethin sample | 210 | 94.8% | 33 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 176 | 75.3% | 64 min | 2.27% | B |
| SNA to SMF · Sacramentothin sample | 174 | 90.8% | 57 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 168 | 79.9% | 90 min | 2.38% | B |
| SNA to OAK · Oaklandthin sample | 165 | 90.9% | 57 min | 0.61% | A+ |
| SNA to PDX · Portlandthin sample | 118 | 96.6% | 26 min | 1.69% | A |
| SNA to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 93 | 71.9% | 122 min | 4.30% | C− |
| SNA to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 93 | 95.7% | 55 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 79 | 76.3% | 76 min | 3.80% | B− |
| SNA to STS · Santa Rosathin sample | 57 | 89.5% | 64 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 44 | 76.7% | 68 min | 2.27% | B |
| SNA to BOI · Boisethin sample | 36 | 94.3% | 21 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 36 | 73.5% | 66 min | 5.56% | C− |
| SNA to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 31 | 96.4% | 300 min | 9.68% | A− |
| SNA to TUS · Tucsonthin sample | 31 | 93.3% | 31 min | 3.23% | A− |
| SNA to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 31 | 80.0% | 41 min | 3.23% | B− |
Delay causes
What held SNA up in January
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 37,000 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.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% 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 37,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 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 36,819 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.13% against a national 4.71%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.14%.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.6% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 7.6% 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.
What to do with this
Flying from SNA in January
For a January trip through SNA: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 86.5% on time with 2.13% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.
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 December79.4%
- 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.