Carrier route record

OOMSP→SFO

SkyWest Airlines · Minneapolis to San Francisco

Flights: 173
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 9%
Carriers: 3

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with SkyWest Airlines.

SkyWest on MSP to SFO sits in the middle of the pack with a C+. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 8 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 173 flights, with a median arrival 1 minute late.

The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so SkyWest on MSP to SFO runs 8 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 76 extra late arrivals.

On time

70.0%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 170 completed flights

Avg delay

69 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.58%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

70.5%

Every carrier on MSP to SFO, 1,919 flights

These figures cover 173 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.

Carrier by carrier

SkyWest against every carrier on MSP to SFO

SkyWest flew 173 of the 1,919 flights on MSP to SFO, about 9% of it. Its 70.0% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 70.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 72.3% to SkyWest at 70.0%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.

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.

On-time performance by carrier on MSP to SFO
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlinesthin sample	301	72.3%	76 min	0.33%	C+
Delta Air Lines	1,445	70.1%	53 min	0.76%	C+
SkyWest Airlines (this page)thin sample	173	70.0%	69 min	0.58%	C+

Departure window

When SkyWest runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 20 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am71 flights81.4%
8am–11am1 flights—
11am–2pm—
2pm–5pm96 flights61.7%
5pm–8pm5 flights—
8pm–5am—

Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 81.4% of the time, against 61.7% for the afternoon window. That is 20 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 96 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

SkyWest on MSP to SFO through the year

Jul–Sep 202584 flights88.1%
Oct–Dec 202520 flights—
Jan–Mar 20266 flights—
Apr–Jun 202663 flights60.7%

Scale runs 50% 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 70.0% on time across 173 flights.

Split by quarter, SkyWest on MSP to SFO logged 84 flights in Jul–Sep 2025, 20 flights in Oct–Dec 2025, 6 flights in Jan–Mar 2026 and 63 flights in Apr–Jun 2026. Fewer than three of those quarters carried the 30 completed flights this site needs before printing a rate, so the 70.0% annual figure is the one to use.

Delay causes

Why SkyWest runs late on this route

One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 52% of the 3,533 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.

National Airspace System
52%
Late-arriving aircraft
28%
Carrier
20%
Extreme weather
0%

52% 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 1,824 minutes out of 3,533, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 3,533 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.58%, below the national 1.81% 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 costs

For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.

At 1,589 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 77.8% on time across 173 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.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 173 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 SkyWest on MSP to SFO

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 173 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 70.0% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 170 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

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