Route reliability record
ATL→SAN
Atlanta to San Diego
- Flights
- 2,353
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,892 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 45 minutes on average. That rests on 2,353 ATL to SAN flights, with a median arrival 3 minutes early.
Best time to fly ATL to SAN: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.7% of the time and Wednesday flights 86.0%, against 78.2% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,320 completed flights
Avg delay
46 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.64%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
77.8% on time across 2,173 flights
These figures cover 2,353 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on ATL to SAN
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 180 | 83.8% | 32 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 2,173 | 77.8% | 47 min | 0.69% | B+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on ATL to SAN
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 15 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am499 flights87.7%
- 11am–2pm404 flights76.1%
- 2pm–5pm499 flights78.3%
- 5pm–8pm609 flights72.9%
- 8pm–5am342 flights76.3%
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 87.7% of the time, against 72.9% 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 609 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ATL to SAN by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On ATL to SAN, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 87.7% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 72.9%, a wide gap of 14.8 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am87.7%
- 11am–2pm76.1%
- 2–5pm78.3%
- 5–8pm72.9%
- 8pm–5am76.3%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 19 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
August is the worst month at 67.3% on time, 19 points below March, the best at 85.8%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. October was the busiest month here, with 233 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.0% on time and Thursday the weakest at 73.4%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 43% of the 23,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Carrier
- 31%National Airspace System
- 21%Late-arriving aircraft
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 9,954 of the 23,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 23,198 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.64%, below the national 1.89% 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.6% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% 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.
At 1,892 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 85.7% on time across 2,352 flights, 8 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 8 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,353 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in SAN after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. March runs 85.8% on time and August 67.3%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 2,320 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ATL to SAN questions
How often is ATL to SAN delayed?
Roughly one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.8% of the 2,353 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 45 minutes on average.
How reliable is ATL to SAN compared with the rest of the country?
78.2% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of about a point in its favour. That is worth a B+ on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on ATL to SAN?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 87.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 72.9%, 15 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are August delays on ATL to SAN?
August is the weakest month at 67.3% on time, compared with 85.8% in March. Across the year that is 19 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- SAN to ATL — the return legseparate record
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- San Diego International (SAN) delay statistics
- Alaska Airlines on ATL to SAN83.8%
- Delta Air Lines on ATL to SAN77.8%
- ATL to LGA, a related route72.3%
- SFO to SAN, a related route62.2%
- ATL to MCO, a related route70.3%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record83.8%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record77.8%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. ATL to SAN and SAN to ATL are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.