OOSLC→SAN

SkyWest flew 685 of the 2,958 flights on SLC to SAN, about 23% of it. Its 85.9% on time is 3 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 83.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Alaska at 100.0% to Southwest at 75.8%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 83.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 75.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 408 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.7% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% 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 626 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 78.4% on time across 688 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. 685 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.