Airport month record
SNASEP
John Wayne Airport in September 2025
- Departures
- 3,751
- Month
- September 2025
- National, same month
- 83.4%
- Carriers
- 9
Historical statistics for September 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s September. For today’s conditions at SNA, see live FAA status.
SNA in September earns a B+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it about a point better than the national rate of 83.4%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 3,751 flights, of which United Airlines flew 506 at 85.5% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 85.5% on time across 506 flights.
Key figures
On time
84.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,716 completed departures
Avg delay
64 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.59%
Nationally in September: 0.51%
Whole year
81.5%
SNA across all twelve months
These figures cover 3,751 departures from John Wayne Airport in September 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
September next to SNA's other months
Against SNA's own year, September ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 81.5%, which makes it number three of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for SNA in September, at 0.59% against 1.09% across the year. Either side of it, August ran 80.6% on time and October 82.9%, 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 (this page) | 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 | 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 September
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 points, against 4 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am561 flights94.4%
- 8am–11am784 flights89.3%
- 11am–2pm926 flights81.8%
- 2pm–5pm701 flights82.1%
- 5pm–8pm589 flights78.4%
- 8pm–5am190 flights79.1%
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 94.4% of the time, against 78.4% for the evening window. That is 16 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 926 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 90.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 80.2%. 11 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at SNA in September
The five carriers here are closely matched: 4 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 1,249 | 83.6% | 53 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 531 | 84.7% | 84 min | 1.51% | B |
| United Airlines | 506 | 85.5% | 55 min | 0.20% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 488 | 81.9% | 55 min | 0.20% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 414 | 84.3% | 86 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 361 | 92.8% | 40 min | 0.55% | A+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 84 | 77.1% | 68 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 63 | 91.9% | 44 min | 1.59% | A |
| Allegiant Airthin sample | 55 | 78.2% | 160 min | 0.00% | B+ |
No carrier stands out. United tops the table at 85.5%, 4 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of SNA in September
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNA to SFO · San Francisco | 436 | 80.0% | 46 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| SNA to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 351 | 87.4% | 63 min | 1.99% | A |
| SNA to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 347 | 77.7% | 63 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| SNA to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 330 | 89.0% | 34 min | 0.61% | A+ |
| SNA to DEN · Denverthin sample | 313 | 85.6% | 59 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 247 | 85.7% | 106 min | 2.83% | A |
| SNA to SJC · San Josethin sample | 215 | 87.4% | 50 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to SMF · Sacramentothin sample | 206 | 83.3% | 43 min | 0.97% | B+ |
| SNA to OAK · Oaklandthin sample | 193 | 91.1% | 46 min | 0.52% | A+ |
| SNA to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 190 | 81.4% | 60 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to PDX · Portlandthin sample | 147 | 94.6% | 63 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 146 | 84.2% | 112 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 103 | 86.3% | 128 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 90 | 92.2% | 23 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 90 | 84.1% | 85 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to STS · Santa Rosathin sample | 60 | 78.0% | 102 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 51 | 84.3% | 38 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 31 | 87.1% | 71 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 30 | 76.7% | 32 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 30 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| SNA to AUS · Austinthin sample | 30 | 76.7% | 46 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 30 | 83.3% | 61 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SNA to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 30 | 56.7% | 43 min | 0.00% | D+ |
Delay causes
What held SNA up in September
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 36,000 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.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 23%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
46% 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 36,000 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 36,209 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.59%, below the national 0.51% 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 4.7% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 5.4% 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 September
For a September trip through SNA: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 84.7% on time with 0.59% 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 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 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.