Carrier route record
ASEWR→SAN
Alaska Airlines · Newark to San Diego
- Flights
- 328
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 21%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Alaska Airlines.
Alaska on EWR to SAN lands a B−, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 328 flights, with a median arrival 12 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Alaska on EWR to SAN from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 313 completed flights
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.66%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
79.4%
Every carrier on EWR to SAN, 1,557 flights
These figures cover 328 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Alaska against every carrier on EWR to SAN
Alaska flew 328 of the 1,557 flights on EWR to SAN, about 21% of it. Its 77.0% on time is 2 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 79.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 80.1% to Alaska at 77.0%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,229 | 80.1% | 63 min | 1.95% | B |
| Alaska Airlines (this page)thin sample | 328 | 77.0% | 67 min | 3.66% | B− |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
When Alaska runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 26 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm202 flights86.7%
- 5pm–8pm126 flights60.7%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 50% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 60.7% on time, against 86.7% for the 2pm–5pm slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 202 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Alaska on EWR to SAN through the year
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights—
- Oct–Dec 202591 flights70.9%
- Jan–Mar 202654 flights88.5%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights81.1%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights63.2%
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 77.0% on time across 328 flights.
Alaska on EWR to SAN did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jan–Mar 2026 at 88.5% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 63.2%, a swing of 25 points on roughly 82 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 90.9% on time and Thursday the weakest at 67.4%, a spread of 24 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Alaska on EWR to SAN runs when it is late
Alaska on EWR to SAN often beats the schedule: 142 of 313 completed flights, 45%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 72 late arrivals split 24 under half an hour, 22 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 26 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early142 flights45.4%
- Within 15 min99 flights31.6%
- 15–29 min late24 flights7.7%
- 30–59 min late22 flights7.0%
- 1–2 hours late18 flights5.8%
- 2+ hours late8 flights2.6%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 313 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
A late pushback is often recovered here: of 63 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 21 still arrived on time. In the other direction, 30 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at SAN.
The worst days
Worst days for Alaska on EWR to SAN
The latest arrival of the period was on 20 May 2026, 5 hours 13 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as extreme weather. The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 20 May 2026 | 5 hours 13 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 20 August 2026 | 5 hours 9 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 7 August 2026 | 4 hours 49 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 2 November 2025 | 3 hours 34 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 9 April 2026 | 3 hours 25 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why Alaska runs late on this route
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 4,790 reported delay minutes.
- 34%National Airspace System
- 28%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Extreme weather
- 13%Carrier
- 1%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 24% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 4.0 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 4,790 reported delay minutes.
34% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 1,650 minutes out of 4,790, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 3.66%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 25 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
8.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so 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.
At 2,425 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 84.0% on time across 328 flights, 7 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 7 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 328 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking Alaska on EWR to SAN
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.66% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 2pm–5pm departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 313 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- EWR to SAN, every carrier
- Alaska on SAN to EWR, the return leg
- United Airlines on EWR to SAN80.1%
- Alaska Airlines network-wide record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- San Diego International (SAN) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
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.