Carrier route record
OORNO→SAN
SkyWest Airlines · Reno to San Diego
- Flights
- 229
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 20%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with SkyWest Airlines.
SkyWest on RNO to SAN lands a B−, about a point better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 229 flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate SkyWest on RNO 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
78.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 219 completed flights
Avg delay
60 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.37%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
72.8%
Every carrier on RNO to SAN, 1,162 flights
These figures cover 229 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 4 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.
Carrier by carrier
SkyWest against every carrier on RNO to SAN
SkyWest flew 229 of the 1,162 flights on RNO to SAN, about 20% of it. Its 78.5% on time is 6 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 72.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Spirit at 88.9% to Southwest at 71.2%. 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.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 9 | 88.9% | 20 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines (this page)thin sample | 229 | 78.5% | 60 min | 4.37% | B− |
| Southwest Airlines | 924 | 71.2% | 49 min | 0.43% | 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 21 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–8am108 flights90.2%
- 8am–11am10 flights—
- 11am–2pm111 flights69.2%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 69.2% on time against 90.2% for 5am–8am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 111 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
SkyWest on RNO to SAN through the year
- Oct–Dec 2025119 flights73.7%
- Jan–Mar 202645 flights93.0%
- Apr–Jun 202665 flights77.4%
Scale runs 65% to 100%. 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 78.5% on time across 229 flights.
SkyWest on RNO to SAN did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jan–Mar 2026 at 93.0% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 73.7%, a swing of 19 points on roughly 76 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 83.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 68.6%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why SkyWest 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 2,796 reported delay minutes.
- 35%Carrier
- 33%National Airspace System
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 982 of the 2,796 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 2,796 reported delay minutes.
33% 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 912 minutes out of 2,796, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 4.37%, against 1.81% 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
6.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says 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 488 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 86.6% on time across 228 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. 229 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 RNO to SAN
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.37% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 219 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
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.