Carrier route record
DLJFK→SAN
Delta Air Lines · New York to San Diego
- Flights
- 1,046
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 43%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on JFK to SAN sits in the middle of the pack with a B−. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about 55 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 1,046 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, JetBlue Airways, flew 724 at 83.2% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Delta on JFK 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
75.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 999 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.15%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
78.0%
Every carrier on JFK to SAN, 2,417 flights
These figures cover 1,046 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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
Delta against every carrier on JFK to SAN
Delta flew 1,046 of the 2,417 flights on JFK to SAN, about 43% of it. Its 75.5% on time is 3 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 78.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from JetBlue at 83.2% to Delta at 75.5%.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. JetBlue Airways arrives on time 83.2% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 76.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 647 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airways | 724 | 83.2% | 60 min | 3.59% | B− |
| Alaska Airlines | 647 | 76.4% | 69 min | 1.55% | B |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 1,046 | 75.5% | 54 min | 3.15% | B− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 3.6% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Delta flight numbers on JFK to SAN
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Departure window
When Delta runs best on this route
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 1,046 flights.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am365 flights80.4%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm3 flights—
- 5pm–8pm364 flights73.6%
- 8pm–5am314 flights71.6%
Scale runs 65% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 80.4% of the time, against 71.6% for the overnight window. That is 9 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 365 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on JFK to SAN through the year
January is the weak month at 64.4% on time, against 83.3% in May. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. May was the busiest month here, with 93 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 81.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.4%, a spread of 14 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Delta on JFK to SAN runs when it is late
Delta on JFK to SAN often beats the schedule: 376 of 999 completed flights, 38%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 245 late arrivals split 93 under half an hour, 81 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 71 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early376 flights37.6%
- Within 15 min378 flights37.8%
- 15–29 min late93 flights9.3%
- 30–59 min late81 flights8.1%
- 1–2 hours late46 flights4.6%
- 2+ hours late25 flights2.5%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 999 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
56 of 190 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 29% of them. In the other direction, 111 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 Delta on JFK to SAN
The latest arrival of the period was on 6 June 2026, 4 hours 18 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 6 June 2026 | 4 hours 18 minutes | Carrier |
| 5 July 2026 | 4 hours 8 minutes | Carrier |
| 20 August 2026 | 3 hours 41 minutes | Carrier |
| 6 September 2025 | 3 hours 34 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 30 October 2025 | 3 hours 32 minutes | National Airspace System |
Delay causes
Why Delta runs late on this route
National Airspace System accounts for 46% of the 13,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%National Airspace System
- 34%Carrier
- 16%Late-arriving aircraft
- 3%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
46% 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 6,061 minutes out of 13,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 13,252 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 34%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,567 of the 13,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 3.15%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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
7.1% 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 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,446 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 82.8% on time across 1,046 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. 1,046 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 Delta on JFK to SAN
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.15% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 55 minutes; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 999 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- JFK to SAN, every carrier
- Delta on SAN to JFK, the return leg
- JetBlue Airways on JFK to SAN83.2%
- Alaska Airlines on JFK to SAN76.4%
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) 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.