Airport month record

SNAOCT

John Wayne Airport in October 2025

Departures: 3,871
Month: October 2025
National, same month: 79.7%
Carriers: 9

Historical statistics for October 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s October. For today’s conditions at SNA, see live FAA status.

SNA in October lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 79.7%. About one flight in six 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 3,871 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 413 at 86.6% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 86.6% on time across 413 flights.

On time

82.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,838 completed departures

Avg delay

74 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.59%

Nationally in October: 0.53%

Whole year

81.5%

SNA across all twelve months

These figures cover 3,871 departures from John Wayne Airport in October 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

October next to SNA's other months

Against SNA's own year, October ran about a point better than the twelve-month rate of 81.5%, which makes it number five of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for SNA in October, at 0.59% against 1.09% across the year. Either side of it, September ran 84.7% on time and November 80.8%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.

SNA month by month
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 (this page)	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	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 October

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 15 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am602 flights92.6%
8am–11am772 flights87.1%
11am–2pm882 flights81.1%
2pm–5pm653 flights78.2%
5pm–8pm682 flights78.0%
8pm–5am280 flights79.0%

Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.6% of the time, against 78.0% for the evening window. That is 15 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 882 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 87.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.5%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at SNA in October

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.6% of the time; SkyWest Airlines manages 78.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 502 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at SNA in October 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	1,239	82.1%	51 min	0.40%	B+
American Airlines	575	80.4%	103 min	0.70%	B+
United Airlines	540	85.6%	71 min	0.00%	A+
SkyWest Airlines	502	78.9%	61 min	0.60%	B+
Delta Air Lines	413	86.6%	106 min	0.24%	A+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	364	88.1%	47 min	2.47%	A
Allegiant Airthin sample	90	80.0%	189 min	0.00%	B+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	87	77.9%	51 min	1.15%	B
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	61	86.9%	190 min	0.00%	A+

Delta leads SkyWest by 8 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of SNA in October

Routes from SNA in October 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SNA to SFO · San Francisco	448	75.3%	60 min	0.67%	B+
SNA to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	354	79.0%	76 min	0.28%	B+
SNA to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	354	81.3%	79 min	0.28%	B+
SNA to SEA · Seattlethin sample	341	87.7%	82 min	2.05%	A
SNA to DEN · Denverthin sample	333	87.7%	50 min	0.30%	A+
SNA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	260	82.0%	80 min	1.15%	B
SNA to SJC · San Josethin sample	228	84.1%	44 min	0.88%	B+
SNA to ORD · Chicagothin sample	208	77.9%	74 min	0.00%	B+
SNA to OAK · Oaklandthin sample	197	83.8%	46 min	0.00%	B+
SNA to SMF · Sacramentothin sample	185	86.4%	50 min	0.54%	A+
SNA to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	157	87.8%	128 min	0.00%	A+
SNA to PDX · Portlandthin sample	143	90.8%	36 min	1.40%	A
SNA to IAH · Houstonthin sample	93	96.7%	98 min	0.00%	A+
SNA to EWR · Newarkthin sample	93	74.4%	115 min	0.00%	C+
SNA to ATL · Atlantathin sample	87	85.1%	53 min	0.00%	A+
SNA to STS · Santa Rosathin sample	62	83.9%	59 min	0.00%	B+
SNA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	53	90.4%	152 min	1.89%	A
SNA to DTW · Detroitthin sample	31	71.0%	37 min	0.00%	C+
SNA to CLT · Charlottethin sample	31	93.5%	41 min	0.00%	A+
SNA to DAL · Dallasthin sample	31	93.3%	31 min	0.00%	A+
SNA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	31	66.7%	180 min	3.23%	C−
SNA to AUS · Austinthin sample	31	90.3%	45 min	0.00%	A+
SNA to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	30	70.0%	41 min	0.00%	C+

Delay causes

What held SNA up in October

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.

Late-arriving aircraft
39%
Carrier
34%
National Airspace System
24%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

39% 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 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 split is drawn from 48,213 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.59%, below the national 0.53% 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.

5.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.3%. 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 October

For a October trip through SNA: expect 82.9% on time and 0.59% cancelled, going by October 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

John Wayne Airport (SNA), the whole year
SNA in July75.7%
SNA in August80.6%
SNA in September84.7%
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 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.

Key figures