Carrier route record

UAMSP→SFO

United Airlines · Minneapolis to San Francisco

Flights: 356
Period: September 2025 to August 2026
Share of route: 18%
Carriers: 3

Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.

United on MSP to SFO sits in the middle of the pack with a C+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 356 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate United on MSP to SFO from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

74.6%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 355 completed flights

Avg delay

75 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.28%

National rate is 1.89%

Whole route

66.8%

Every carrier on MSP to SFO, 1,926 flights

These figures cover 356 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.

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Carrier by carrier

United against every carrier on MSP to SFO

United flew 356 of the 1,926 flights on MSP to SFO, about 18% of it. Its 74.6% on time is 8 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 66.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 74.6% to SkyWest at 60.2%. 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 Airlines (this page)thin sample	356	74.6%	75 min	0.28%	C+
Delta Air Lines	1,449	65.4%	50 min	0.76%	C+
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	121	60.2%	66 min	0.83%	D+

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 United runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 55 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.

5am–8am87 flights92.0%
8am–11am43 flights37.2%
11am–2pm—
2pm–5pm101 flights79.0%
5pm–8pm125 flights72.0%
8pm–5am—

Scale runs 30% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.0% of the time, against 37.2% for the morning window. That is 55 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 125 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

United on MSP to SFO through the year

Jul–Sep 202529 flights—
Oct–Dec 202572 flights84.5%
Jan–Mar 202685 flights83.5%
Apr–Jun 2026101 flights48.5%
Jul–Sep 202669 flights84.1%

Scale runs 40% to 90%. 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 74.6% on time across 356 flights.

United on MSP to SFO did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Oct–Dec 2025 at 84.5% on time and its weakest Apr–Jun 2026 at 48.5%, a swing of 36 points on roughly 89 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, Saturday is the strongest day at 82.4% on time and Thursday the weakest at 70.9%, a spread of 12 points.

Arrival by arrival

How late United on MSP to SFO runs when it is late

United on MSP to SFO often beats the schedule: 121 of 355 completed flights, 34%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 90 late arrivals split 23 under half an hour, 25 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 42 an hour or more.

15+ min early121 flights34.1%
Within 15 min144 flights40.6%
15–29 min late23 flights6.5%
30–59 min late25 flights7.0%
1–2 hours late28 flights7.9%
2+ hours late14 flights3.9%

Scale runs 0% to 100%.

Share of 355 completed flights by arrival against schedule.

19 of 97 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 20% of them. 12 flights left on time and still arrived late.

The worst days

Worst days for United on MSP to SFO

The latest arrival of the period was on 17 May 2026, 5 hours 7 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). Three of the five worst days fell in April 2026.

The latest arrivals of United on MSP to SFO in the period
Date	Arrived late by	Largest filed cause
17 May 2026	5 hours 7 minutes	Carrier
15 February 2026	4 hours 43 minutes	National Airspace System
12 April 2026	4 hours 9 minutes	Late-arriving aircraft
20 April 2026	3 hours 35 minutes	National Airspace System
20 April 2026	3 hours 30 minutes	National Airspace System

Delay causes

Why United runs late on this route

National Airspace System accounts for 60% of the 6,724 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.

National Airspace System
60%
Late-arriving aircraft
26%
Carrier
14%

60% 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 4,026 minutes out of 6,724, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 6,724 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.28%, 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 costs

11.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection 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 runs 77.1% on time across 355 flights, within 3 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 356 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 United on MSP to SFO

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 356 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 74.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 355 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated 22 October 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures