Route reliability record
SEA→OAK
Seattle to Oakland
- Flights
- 1,914
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 672 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about 50 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 1,914 SEA to OAK flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 785 at 78.3% on time.
Best time to fly SEA to OAK: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 95.9% of the time and Wednesday flights 82.7%, against 73.7% 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
73.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,899 completed flights
Avg delay
51 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.78%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Alaska
78.3% on time across 785 flights
These figures cover 1,914 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 2 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 SEA to OAK
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 78.3% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 69.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,088 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 41 | 92.3% | 72 min | 4.88% | A− |
| Alaska Airlines | 785 | 78.3% | 49 min | 1.27% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,088 | 69.8% | 52 min | 0.28% | C+ |
Alaska leads Southwest by 9 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on SEA to OAK
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 Seattle to Oakland
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. SEA → SJCSeattle to San Jose | SkyWest Airlines | 85.5% | 85.7% | 0.18% | 8am–11am, Tue | OO 3736 08:30 |
| 2. SEA → SJCSeattle to San Jose | Alaska Airlines | 79.0% | 79.8% | 1.06% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 3. SEA → OAKSeattle to Oakland | Alaska Airlines | 77.3% | 78.3% | 1.27% | 5am–8am, Mon | AS 706 21:45 |
| 4. SEA → SJCSeattle to San Jose | Southwest Airlines | 70.3% | 70.5% | 0.22% | 8am–11am, Tue | — |
| 5. SEA → OAKSeattle to Oakland | Southwest Airlines | 69.6% | 69.8% | 0.28% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
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 34 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am273 flights95.9%
- 8am–11am298 flights81.9%
- 11am–2pm360 flights71.9%
- 2pm–5pm245 flights69.3%
- 5pm–8pm338 flights61.8%
- 8pm–5am400 flights66.9%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.8% 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 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 400 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SEA to OAK 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 SEA to OAK, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 95.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 61.8%, a wide gap of 34.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am95.9%
- 8–11am81.9%
- 11am–2pm71.9%
- 2–5pm69.3%
- 5–8pm61.8%
- 8pm–5am66.9%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 20 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.
August is the worst month at 62.3% on time, 20 points below February, the best at 82.4%. 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. August was the busiest month here, with 218 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 82.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 65.3%, a spread of 17 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 54% of the 25,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 54%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 7%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
54% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 25,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 44 to one. The split is drawn from 25,438 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 37%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 9,473 of the 25,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.78%, 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
6.7% 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 about 50 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 672 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 77.3% on time across 1,896 flights, 4 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 4 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,914 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 OAK 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. February runs 82.4% on time and August 62.3%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 1,899 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SEA to OAK questions
How often is SEA to OAK delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 26.3% of the 1,914 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 50 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SEA to OAK?
Alaska Airlines leads at 78.3% on time across 785 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 69.8%, a gap of 9 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 SEA to OAK?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 95.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 61.8%, 34 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 August delays on SEA to OAK?
August is the weakest month at 62.3% on time, compared with 82.4% in February. Across the year that is 20 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
- OAK to SEA — the return legseparate record
- Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) delay statistics
- Oakland International (OAK) delay statistics
- Alaska Airlines on SEA to OAK78.3%
- Southwest Airlines on SEA to OAK69.8%
- SEA to LAX, a related route82.0%
- SAN to OAK, a related route72.9%
- SEA to PHX, a related route78.2%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record92.3%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record78.3%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record69.8%
- 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. SEA to OAK and OAK to SEA 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.