Airport month record
SNAMAY
John Wayne Airport in May 2026
- Departures
- 3,835
- Month
- May 2026
- National, same month
- 78.6%
- Carriers
- 8
Historical statistics for May 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s May. For today’s conditions at SNA, see live FAA status.
SNA in May lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 78.6%. About one flight in five arrives 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 3,835 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 367 at 94.2% on time.
Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 94.2% on time across 367 flights.
Key figures
On time
81.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,783 completed departures
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.78%
Nationally in May: 0.92%
Whole year
81.5%
SNA across all twelve months
These figures cover 3,835 departures from John Wayne Airport in May 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
May next to SNA's other months
Against SNA's own year, May ran level with the twelve-month rate of 81.5%, which makes it number seven of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, April ran 82.5% on time and June 75.1%, 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 | 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 (this page) | 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 May
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 17 points, against 36 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am600 flights89.5%
- 8am–11am715 flights90.1%
- 11am–2pm857 flights80.6%
- 2pm–5pm732 flights73.3%
- 5pm–8pm661 flights72.9%
- 8pm–5am270 flights84.0%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 90.1% of the time, against 72.9% for the evening 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 857 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 88.8% on time and Monday the weakest at 76.9%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at SNA in May
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 94.2% of the time; SkyWest Airlines manages 58.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 525 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 1,236 | 86.0% | 45 min | 0.40% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 585 | 82.1% | 74 min | 1.71% | B |
| United Airlines | 528 | 80.7% | 53 min | 0.38% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 525 | 58.1% | 64 min | 1.71% | D |
| Delta Air Lines | 379 | 86.0% | 78 min | 0.26% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 367 | 94.2% | 41 min | 0.54% | A+ |
| Allegiant Airthin sample | 125 | 78.2% | 196 min | 0.80% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 87 | 77.0% | 163 min | 0.00% | B+ |
The spread between Alaska and SkyWest is 36 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 36 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of SNA in May
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNA to SFO · San Francisco | 413 | 39.4% | 59 min | 1.69% | F |
| SNA to PHX · Phoenix | 402 | 86.3% | 63 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 353 | 90.9% | 62 min | 0.28% | A+ |
| SNA to DEN · Denverthin sample | 320 | 87.8% | 58 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 304 | 84.7% | 82 min | 1.32% | B |
| SNA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 255 | 81.7% | 91 min | 3.92% | B− |
| SNA to SJC · San Josethin sample | 228 | 89.4% | 34 min | 0.88% | A+ |
| SNA to OAK · Oaklandthin sample | 201 | 85.1% | 41 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to SMF · Sacramentothin sample | 192 | 84.9% | 49 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 181 | 80.6% | 47 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 151 | 90.7% | 109 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to PDX · Portlandthin sample | 124 | 93.5% | 45 min | 0.81% | A+ |
| SNA to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 93 | 93.4% | 58 min | 1.08% | A |
| SNA to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 93 | 89.2% | 65 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 90 | 77.8% | 116 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to STS · Santa Rosathin sample | 62 | 80.0% | 74 min | 3.23% | B− |
| SNA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 56 | 79.6% | 42 min | 1.79% | B |
| SNA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 48 | 91.7% | 37 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to BOI · Boisethin sample | 42 | 90.2% | 22 min | 2.38% | A |
| SNA to PVU · Provothin sample | 40 | 75.0% | 276 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 31 | 76.7% | 44 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 31 | 90.3% | 62 min | 0.00% | A+ |
Delay causes
What held SNA up in May
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 48,000 reported delay minutes.
- 37%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%National Airspace System
- 25%Carrier
- 5%Extreme weather
37% 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 48,000 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 47,637 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.78%, below the national 0.92% 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.
5.9% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 7.1%. 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
What to do with this
Flying from SNA in May
For a May trip through SNA: expect 81.3% on time and 0.78% cancelled, going by May 2026. The 8am–11am window was the strongest part of the 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 January86.5%
- SNA in February85.7%
- SNA in March83.8%
- SNA in April82.5%
- 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.