Route reliability record
SFO→EWR
San Francisco to Newark
- Flights
- 4,348
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,565 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 4,348 SFO to EWR flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 487 at 89.4% on time.
Best time to fly SFO to EWR: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.6% of the time and Tuesday flights 81.2%, against 76.8% 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
76.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,227 completed flights
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.95%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Alaska
89.4% on time across 487 flights
These figures cover 4,348 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on SFO to EWR
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 89.4% of the time; United Airlines manages 75.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 3,861 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 487 | 89.4% | 58 min | 1.03% | A |
| United Airlines | 3,861 | 75.2% | 79 min | 2.07% | B |
The spread between Alaska and United is 14 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 14 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on SFO to EWR
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 Francisco to Newark
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. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SFO → EWRSan Francisco to Newark | Alaska Airlines | 88.5% | 89.4% | 1.03% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 2. SFO → JFKSan Francisco to New York | JetBlue Airways | 76.9% | 78.9% | 2.51% | 5am–8am, Wed | B6 816 07:00 |
| 3. SFO → JFKSan Francisco to New York | Alaska Airlines | 76.9% | 78.6% | 2.16% | 5am–8am, Tue | AS 20 07:20 |
| 4. SFO → JFKSan Francisco to New York | Delta Air Lines | 75.5% | 77.2% | 2.15% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 405 07:00 |
| 5. SFO → JFKSan Francisco to New York | American Airlines | 75.0% | 77.5% | 3.20% | 5am–8am, Fri | AA 234 06:15 |
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 28 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am725 flights91.6%
- 8am–11am830 flights78.8%
- 11am–2pm774 flights64.0%
- 2pm–5pm720 flights65.5%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am1,299 flights81.1%
Scale runs 55% 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 64.0% on time against 91.6% 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 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 1,299 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SFO to EWR 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 SFO to EWR, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.6% on time and the worst is 11am–2pm at 64.0%, a wide gap of 27.6 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.6%
- 8–11am78.8%
- 11am–2pm64.0%
- 2–5pm65.5%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am81.1%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 21 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 67.0% on time, 21 points below April, the best at 87.6%. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 404 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 81.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.4%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 77,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 26%National Airspace System
- 0%Extreme weather
47% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 77,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 47 to one. The split is drawn from 76,706 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 91.6% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.95% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.83%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
10.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 2,565 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 67.9% on time across 4,349 flights, 9 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 9 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 4,348 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 EWR 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. April runs 87.6% on time and August 67.0%, a swing of 21 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 4,227 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SFO to EWR questions
How often is SFO to EWR 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 23.2% of the 4,348 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SFO to EWR?
Alaska Airlines leads at 89.4% on time across 487 flights. United Airlines is at the other end on 75.2%, a gap of 14 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 SFO to EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.6% on time. The 11am–2pm window is the weakest at 64.0%, 28 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 SFO to EWR?
August is the weakest month at 67.0% on time, compared with 87.6% in April. Across the year that is 21 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
- EWR to SFO — the return legseparate record
- San Francisco International (SFO) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Alaska Airlines on SFO to EWR89.4%
- United Airlines on SFO to EWR75.2%
- SFO to LAX, a related route70.9%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- SFO to SEA, a related route72.3%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record89.4%
- United Airlines on-time record75.2%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. SFO to EWR and EWR to SFO 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.