Carrier route record
UASFO→BNA
United Airlines · San Francisco to Nashville
- Flights
- 862
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 73%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on SFO to BNA lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 862 flights, with a median arrival 3 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate United on SFO to BNA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 856 completed flights
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.46%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
72.0%
Every carrier on SFO to BNA, 1,174 flights
These figures cover 862 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 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
United against every carrier on SFO to BNA
United flew 862 of the 1,174 flights on SFO to BNA, most of the route. Its 77.0% on time is 5 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 72.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 77.0% to Southwest at 58.4%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines (this page) | 862 | 77.0% | 59 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 312 | 58.4% | 50 min | 0.32% | D+ |
Flight by flight
United flight numbers on SFO to BNA
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Departure window
When United runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 17 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am305 flights82.9%
- 11am–2pm78 flights76.3%
- 2pm–5pm201 flights65.8%
- 5pm–8pm25 flights—
- 8pm–5am253 flights79.0%
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 82.9% of the time, against 65.8% for the afternoon window. That is 17 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 305 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on SFO to BNA through the year
August is the worst month at 56.3% on time, 32 points below September, the best at 88.7%. 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 83 flights.
Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 80.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.6%, a spread of 9 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late United on SFO to BNA runs when it is late
The 197 late arrivals split 86 under half an hour, 60 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 51 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early209 flights24.4%
- Within 15 min450 flights52.6%
- 15–29 min late86 flights10.0%
- 30–59 min late60 flights7.0%
- 1–2 hours late31 flights3.6%
- 2+ hours late20 flights2.3%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 856 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
45 of 190 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 24% of them. In the other direction, 52 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at BNA.
The worst days
Worst days for United on SFO to BNA
The latest arrival of the period was on 21 July 2026, 15 hours 14 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). Three of the five worst days fell in June 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 21 July 2026 | 15 hours 14 minutes | Carrier |
| 30 June 2026 | 6 hours 43 minutes | Carrier |
| 28 May 2026 | 4 hours 23 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 13 June 2026 | 3 hours 54 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 4 June 2026 | 3 hours 35 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 12,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 35%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 12,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 46 to one. The split is drawn from 11,597 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,024 of the 12,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.46%, 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 costs
6.0% 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.
At 1,969 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 runs 74.6% on time across 862 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 862 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 United on SFO to BNA
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 862 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 77.0% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 856 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- SFO to BNA, every carrier
- United on BNA to SFO, the return leg
- Southwest Airlines on SFO to BNA58.4%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- San Francisco International (SFO) delay statistics
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.