Route reliability record
PHX→SJC
Phoenix to San Jose
- Flights
- 2,979
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 621 mi
- Carriers
- 4
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 an hour on average. That rests on 2,979 PHX to SJC flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 1,837 at 76.9% on time.
Best time to fly PHX to SJC: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 95.9% of the time and Tuesday flights 82.5%, 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 2,960 completed flights
Avg delay
56 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.54%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Southwest
76.9% on time across 1,837 flights
These figures cover 2,979 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 5 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 PHX to SJC
The two carriers here are closely matched: half a point separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 190 | 87.3% | 45 min | 0.53% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 269 | 85.0% | 74 min | 0.74% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,837 | 76.9% | 48 min | 0.38% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 683 | 76.6% | 74 min | 0.88% | B+ |
No carrier stands out. Southwest tops the table at 76.9%, half a point clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Phoenix to San Jose
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 3 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PHX → MRYPhoenix to Monterey | SkyWest Airlines | 78.3% | 78.7% | 0.56% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 2. PHX → SJCPhoenix to San Jose | Southwest Airlines | 76.6% | 76.9% | 0.38% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 3. PHX → SJCPhoenix to San Jose | American Airlines | 75.9% | 76.6% | 0.88% | 11am–2pm, Wed | — |
| 4. PHX → OAKPhoenix to Oakland | Southwest Airlines | 75.3% | 75.6% | 0.42% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 5. PHX → SFOPhoenix to San Francisco | United Airlines | 67.4% | 67.7% | 0.47% | 2pm–5pm, Tue | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
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 32 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am295 flights95.9%
- 8am–11am706 flights87.7%
- 11am–2pm420 flights83.1%
- 2pm–5pm541 flights77.7%
- 5pm–8pm442 flights64.4%
- 8pm–5am575 flights65.0%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 64.4% on time, against 95.9% for the 5am–8am 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 706 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHX to SJC 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 PHX to SJC, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 95.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 64.4%, a wide gap of 31.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am95.9%
- 8–11am87.7%
- 11am–2pm83.1%
- 2–5pm77.7%
- 5–8pm64.4%
- 8pm–5am65.0%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 22 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.
June is the worst month at 67.7% on time, 22 points below September, the best at 89.9%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 299 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 73.7%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 57% of the 36,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 57%Late-arriving aircraft
- 35%Carrier
- 5%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
57% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 36,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 23 to one. The split is drawn from 35,928 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 13,000 of the 36,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.54%, 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
6.5% 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.
The 621 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg runs 80.9% on time across 3,013 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.
The sample behind these figures is 2,979 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 SJC 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. September runs 89.9% on time and June 67.7%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 2,960 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHX to SJC questions
How often is PHX to SJC 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 2,979 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on PHX to SJC?
Southwest Airlines leads at 76.9% on time across 1,837 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 76.6%, a gap of half a point. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on PHX to SJC?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 95.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 64.4%, 32 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 June delays on PHX to SJC?
June is the weakest month at 67.7% on time, compared with 89.9% in September. Across the year that is 22 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
- SJC to PHX — the return legseparate record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International (SJC) delay statistics
- Envoy Air on PHX to SJC87.3%
- SkyWest Airlines on PHX to SJC85.0%
- Southwest Airlines on PHX to SJC76.9%
- American Airlines on PHX to SJC76.6%
- PHX to DEN, a related route76.7%
- SAN to SJC, a related route74.5%
- PHX to LAX, a related route82.1%
- Envoy Air on-time record87.3%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record85.0%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record76.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. PHX to SJC and SJC to PHX 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.