Route reliability record
SLC→SJC
Salt Lake City to San Jose
- Flights
- 1,810
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 584 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route earns an A+. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 9 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 1,810 SLC to SJC flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 694 at 92.9% on time.
Best time to fly SLC to SJC: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 97.9% of the time and Tuesday flights 93.1%, against 87.0% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 9 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 94 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
87.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,803 completed flights
Avg delay
65 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.39%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
SkyWest
92.9% on time across 694 flights
These figures cover 1,810 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 9 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
Which airline is most reliable on SLC to SJC
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 92.9% of the time; Delta Air Lines manages 84.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 892 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 694 | 92.9% | 61 min | 0.14% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 892 | 84.6% | 73 min | 0.45% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 224 | 77.9% | 48 min | 0.89% | B+ |
SkyWest leads Delta by 8 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on SLC to SJC
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.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Salt Lake City to San Jose
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. 3 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SLC → SJCSalt Lake City to San Jose | SkyWest Airlines | 92.8% | 92.9% | 0.14% | 8am–11am, Tue | — |
| 2. SLC → OAKSalt Lake City to Oakland | SkyWest Airlines | 92.2% | 92.4% | 0.19% | 11am–2pm, Tue | OO 3797 22:50 |
| 3. SLC → OAKSalt Lake City to Oakland | Southwest Airlines | 86.1% | 86.2% | 0.17% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 4. SLC → SJCSalt Lake City to San Jose | Delta Air Lines | 84.2% | 84.6% | 0.45% | 2pm–5pm, Tue | DL 1272 22:50 |
| 5. SLC → SFOSalt Lake City to San Francisco | United Airlines | 76.4% | 76.6% | 0.21% | 11am–2pm, Tue | — |
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 17 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am117 flights93.2%
- 8am–11am235 flights97.9%
- 11am–2pm460 flights84.5%
- 2pm–5pm440 flights88.4%
- 5pm–8pm197 flights83.8%
- 8pm–5am361 flights81.0%
Scale runs 75% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 97.9% of the time, against 81.0% for the overnight 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 460 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 1,810 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
June is the worst month at 83.4% on time, 6 points below September, the best at 89.8%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 176 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 93.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 82.9%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 58% of the 15,000 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.
- 58%Carrier
- 32%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 58%, 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 8,956 of the 15,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 15,317 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 97.9% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.39%, below the national 1.81% 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
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.3% 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 584 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 92.2% on time across 1,808 flights, 5 points above 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 5 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,810 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 SJC after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: avoid the 8pm–5am departure. It runs 81.0% on time against 97.9% for the 8am–11am slot, and that 17 points is the largest single thing you control here. SkyWest Airlines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 1,803 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SLC to SJC questions
How often is SLC to SJC delayed?
About one flight in eight arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 13.0% of the 1,810 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SLC to SJC?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 92.9% on time across 694 flights. Delta Air Lines is at the other end on 84.6%, 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 SLC to SJC?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 97.9% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 81.0%, 17 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 SLC to SJC?
June is the weakest month at 83.4% on time, compared with 89.8% in September. Across the year that is 6 points between the best and worst months. The seasonal swing is modest enough that it should not decide when you travel.
Related
Where to go next
- SJC to SLC — the return legseparate record
- Salt Lake City International (SLC) delay statistics
- Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International (SJC) delay statistics
- SkyWest Airlines on SLC to SJC92.9%
- Delta Air Lines on SLC to SJC84.6%
- Southwest Airlines on SLC to SJC77.9%
- SLC to DEN, a related route77.8%
- SAN to SJC, a related route77.6%
- SLC to PHX, a related route83.9%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record92.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record84.6%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record77.9%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. SLC to SJC and SJC to SLC are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed SLC to SJC’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.