Route reliability record
SEA→SNA
Seattle to Santa Ana
- Flights
- 3,945
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 978 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route earns a B+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 7 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about 50 minutes. That rests on 3,945 SEA to SNA flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 2,570 at 86.3% on time.
Best time to fly SEA to SNA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.3% of the time and Tuesday flights 88.4%, against 84.7% for the route overall.
Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 86.3% on time across 2,570 flights.
Key figures
On time
84.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,901 completed flights
Avg delay
49 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.89%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Alaska
86.3% on time across 2,570 flights
These figures cover 3,945 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on SEA to SNA
The three carriers here are closely matched: 6 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 | 2,570 | 86.3% | 40 min | 0.93% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 891 | 82.4% | 71 min | 1.01% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 484 | 80.4% | 45 min | 0.41% | B+ |
No carrier stands out. Alaska tops the table at 86.3%, 6 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
Flight by flight
Flights on SEA to SNA
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.
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.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Seattle to Santa Ana
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 → LAXSeattle to Los Angeles | United Airlines | 88.8% | 88.8% | 0.00% | 11am–2pm, Fri | — |
| 2. SEA → ONTSeattle to Ontario | SkyWest Airlines | 88.0% | 88.3% | 0.38% | 8am–11am, Sat | OO 4031 14:30 |
| 3. SEA → SNASeattle to Santa Ana | Alaska Airlines | 85.5% | 86.3% | 0.93% | 5am–8am, Tue | AS 699 07:15 |
| 4. SEA → LAXSeattle to Los Angeles | SkyWest Airlines | 84.4% | 85.0% | 0.68% | 11am–2pm, Tue | — |
| 5. SEA → SNASeattle to Santa Ana | Delta Air Lines | 81.6% | 82.4% | 1.01% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
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 is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 3,945 flights.
- 5am–8am674 flights89.3%
- 8am–11am562 flights82.5%
- 11am–2pm723 flights82.2%
- 2pm–5pm785 flights81.1%
- 5pm–8pm1,201 flights87.0%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 75% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.3% of the time, against 81.1% for the afternoon window. That is 8 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 1,201 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SEA to SNA 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 SNA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.3% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 81.1%, a real gap of 8.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.3%
- 8–11am82.5%
- 11am–2pm82.2%
- 2–5pm81.1%
- 5–8pm87.0%
- 8pm–5am—
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 18 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 74.7% on time, 18 points below May, the best at 92.9%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 369 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 88.4% on time and Thursday the weakest at 80.4%, a spread of 8 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 54% of the 29,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 54%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 21%Late-arriving aircraft
- 3%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 54%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 16,000 of the 29,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 29,290 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.89%, 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
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.1% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
The 978 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 85.8% on time across 3,944 flights, within about a point 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 3,945 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 SNA 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. May runs 92.9% on time and July 74.7%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 3,901 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SEA to SNA questions
How often is SEA to SNA delayed?
About one flight in seven arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 15.3% of the 3,945 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 SNA?
Alaska Airlines leads at 86.3% on time across 2,570 flights. SkyWest Airlines is at the other end on 80.4%, a gap of 6 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 SNA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.3% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 81.1%, 8 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 SEA to SNA?
July is the weakest month at 74.7% on time, compared with 92.9% in May. Across the year that is 18 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
- SNA to SEA — the return legseparate record
- Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) delay statistics
- John Wayne Airport (SNA) delay statistics
- Alaska Airlines on SEA to SNA86.3%
- Delta Air Lines on SEA to SNA82.4%
- SkyWest Airlines on SEA to SNA80.4%
- SEA to LAX, a related route82.0%
- SFO to SNA, a related route77.4%
- SEA to PHX, a related route78.2%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record86.3%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record82.4%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record80.4%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. SEA to SNA and SNA to SEA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed SEA to SNA’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.