Carrier route record

OOSFO→MSP

SkyWest Airlines · San Francisco to Minneapolis

Flights: 173
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 9%
Carriers: 3

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with SkyWest Airlines.

SkyWest on SFO to MSP lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.6%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 173 flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate SkyWest on SFO to MSP from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

77.8%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 171 completed flights

Avg delay

64 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.00%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

82.5%

Every carrier on SFO to MSP, 1,919 flights

These figures cover 173 flights between July 2025 and June 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.

Carrier by carrier

SkyWest against every carrier on SFO to MSP

SkyWest flew 173 of the 1,919 flights on SFO to MSP, about 9% of it. Its 77.8% on time is 5 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 82.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 83.3% to SkyWest at 77.8%. 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.

On-time performance by carrier on SFO to MSP
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Delta Air Lines	1,445	83.3%	64 min	0.97%	B+
United Airlinesthin sample	301	81.0%	52 min	0.00%	B+
SkyWest Airlines (this page)thin sample	173	77.8%	64 min	0.00%	B+

Departure window

When SkyWest runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am—
8am–11am104 flights85.4%
11am–2pm5 flights—
2pm–5pm57 flights60.7%
5pm–8pm7 flights—
8pm–5am—

Scale runs 50% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 85.4% of the time, against 60.7% for the afternoon window. That is 25 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 104 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

SkyWest on SFO to MSP through the year

Jul–Sep 202583 flights88.9%
Oct–Dec 202520 flights—
Jan–Mar 20267 flights—
Apr–Jun 202663 flights63.5%

Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 77.8% on time across 173 flights.

Split by quarter, SkyWest on SFO to MSP logged 83 flights in Jul–Sep 2025, 20 flights in Oct–Dec 2025, 7 flights in Jan–Mar 2026 and 63 flights in Apr–Jun 2026. Fewer than three of those quarters carried the 30 completed flights this site needs before printing a rate, so the 77.8% annual figure is the one to use.

Delay causes

Why SkyWest runs late on this route

One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 50% of the 2,437 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

National Airspace System
50%
Carrier
37%
Late-arriving aircraft
13%

50% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 1,216 minutes out of 2,437, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 2,437 reported delay minutes.

The largest share of delay minutes, 37%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 895 of the 2,437 delay minutes reported here.

Cancellations are rare at 0.00%, below the national 1.81% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Almost no flights are called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

6.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says 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 1,589 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 70.0% on time across 173 flights, 8 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 8 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 173 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 SkyWest on SFO to MSP

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 173 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 77.8% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 171 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures