Route reliability record
SAN→JFK
San Diego to New York
- Flights
- 2,417
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,446 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, more than four flights in five arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 2,417 SAN to JFK flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 647 at 83.4% on time.
Best time to fly SAN to JFK: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.3% of the time and Tuesday flights 86.9%, against 82.6% for the route overall.
Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 83.4% on time across 647 flights.
Key figures
On time
82.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,304 completed flights
Avg delay
96 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.27%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Alaska
83.4% on time across 647 flights
These figures cover 2,417 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 11 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 SAN to JFK
The three carriers here are closely matched: 2 points 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 647 | 83.4% | 57 min | 1.70% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,046 | 82.8% | 111 min | 3.35% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 724 | 81.7% | 107 min | 4.56% | B− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 4.6% 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
Flights on SAN to JFK
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly San Diego to New York
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. 1 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SAN → JFKSan Diego to New York | Alaska Airlines | 82.0% | 83.4% | 1.70% | 5am–8am, Tue | AS 24 07:00 |
| 2. SAN → JFKSan Diego to New York | Delta Air Lines | 80.0% | 82.8% | 3.35% | 5am–8am, Sat | DL 367 07:00 |
| 3. SAN → EWRSan Diego to Newark | United Airlines | 79.6% | 81.3% | 2.12% | 5am–8am, Tue | UA 1827 22:20 |
| 4. SAN → JFKSan Diego to New York | JetBlue Airways | 78.0% | 81.7% | 4.56% | 8am–11am, Fri | B6 1190 20:30 |
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 21 points, against 2 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am652 flights88.3%
- 8am–11am187 flights85.0%
- 11am–2pm519 flights75.8%
- 2pm–5pm181 flights66.9%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am878 flights85.2%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.3% of the time, against 66.9% for the afternoon window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 878 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SAN to JFK 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 SAN to JFK, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.3% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 66.9%, a wide gap of 21.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.3%
- 8–11am85.0%
- 11am–2pm75.8%
- 2–5pm66.9%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am85.2%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 17 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.
July is the worst month at 72.1% on time, 17 points below September, the best at 89.4%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 215 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 86.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.2%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 43% of the 38,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Carrier
- 29%National Airspace System
- 22%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 16,000 of the 38,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 38,330 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.27%, 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 actually costs
6.7% 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 an hour and a half, 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 78.0% on time across 2,417 flights, 5 points below 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 5 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,417 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 JFK after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.27% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; 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. 2,304 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SAN to JFK questions
How often is SAN to JFK delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.4% of the 2,417 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SAN to JFK?
Alaska Airlines leads at 83.4% on time across 647 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 81.7%, a gap of 2 points. 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 SAN to JFK?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.3% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 66.9%, 21 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 July delays on SAN to JFK?
July is the weakest month at 72.1% on time, compared with 89.4% in September. Across the year that is 17 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
- JFK to SAN — the return legseparate record
- San Diego International (SAN) delay statistics
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Alaska Airlines on SAN to JFK83.4%
- Delta Air Lines on SAN to JFK82.8%
- JetBlue Airways on SAN to JFK81.7%
- SAN to SFO, a related route59.5%
- LAX to JFK, a related route77.5%
- SAN to DEN, a related route78.4%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record83.4%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record82.8%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record81.7%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. SAN to JFK and JFK to SAN 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.