Route reliability record
SJC→PHX
San Jose to Phoenix
- Flights
- 3,013
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 621 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B+, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 3,013 SJC to PHX flights, of which American Airlines flew 685 at 86.1% on time.
Best time to fly SJC to PHX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 93.0% of the time and Saturday flights 86.4%, against 80.9% 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
80.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,983 completed flights
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.76%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
86.1% on time across 685 flights
These figures cover 3,013 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 5 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 SJC to PHX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 86.1% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 77.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,869 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 190 | 89.4% | 52 min | 1.05% | A |
| American Airlines | 685 | 86.1% | 90 min | 0.88% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 269 | 84.2% | 97 min | 1.12% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,869 | 77.7% | 49 min | 0.64% | B+ |
American leads Southwest by 8 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly San Jose to Phoenix
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. SJC → PHXSan Jose to Phoenix | American Airlines | 85.3% | 86.1% | 0.88% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 2. SFO → PHXSan Francisco to Phoenix | SkyWest Airlines | 84.6% | 85.2% | 0.70% | 5am–8am, Wed | OO 6404 06:00 |
| 3. MRY → PHXMonterey to Phoenix | SkyWest Airlines | 81.6% | 82.3% | 0.90% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 4. SFO → PHXSan Francisco to Phoenix | United Airlines | 79.6% | 79.9% | 0.40% | 5am–8am, Sat | UA 2374 07:00 |
| 5. OAK → PHXOakland to Phoenix | Southwest Airlines | 77.3% | 77.5% | 0.26% | 5am–8am, Sat (route) | — |
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 32 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am677 flights93.0%
- 8am–11am475 flights90.5%
- 11am–2pm593 flights83.5%
- 2pm–5pm523 flights69.4%
- 5pm–8pm525 flights73.6%
- 8pm–5am220 flights60.6%
Scale runs 50% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 60.6% on time, against 93.0% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 677 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SJC to PHX 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 SJC to PHX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.0% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 60.6%, a wide gap of 32.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.0%
- 8–11am90.5%
- 11am–2pm83.5%
- 2–5pm69.4%
- 5–8pm73.6%
- 8pm–5am60.6%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%.
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.
June is the worst month at 71.2% on time, 18 points below January, the best at 88.8%. 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 300 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 86.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 77.0%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 60% of the 34,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 60%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
60% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 34,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 23 to one. The split is drawn from 33,708 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 93.0% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.76%, 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
5.6% 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.
The 621 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 78.2% on time across 2,979 flights, within 3 points 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 3,013 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 PHX 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. January runs 88.8% on time and June 71.2%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 2,983 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SJC to PHX questions
How often is SJC to PHX delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.1% of the 3,013 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SJC to PHX?
American Airlines leads at 86.1% on time across 685 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 77.7%, a gap of 8 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 SJC to PHX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 60.6%, 32 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 June delays on SJC to PHX?
June is the weakest month at 71.2% on time, compared with 88.8% in January. 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
- PHX to SJC — the return legseparate record
- Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International (SJC) delay statistics
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Envoy Air on SJC to PHX89.4%
- American Airlines on SJC to PHX86.1%
- SkyWest Airlines on SJC to PHX84.2%
- Southwest Airlines on SJC to PHX77.7%
- SJC to SAN, a related route68.3%
- DEN to PHX, a related route75.6%
- SJC to LAX, a related route85.0%
- Envoy Air on-time record89.4%
- American Airlines on-time record86.1%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record84.2%
- 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. SJC to PHX and PHX to SJC 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.