Flight profile · United Airlines
UA488
Burbank (BUR) to San Francisco (SFO) · scheduled 7:00 AM – 8:45 AM
How UA488 performs
740 operations, March 2024 – July 2026.
UA488 arrived on time 83.8% of the time, against 69.3% for all BUR → SFO flights, so this departure is 14.5 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against United Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 15.7 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 740 operations, March 2024 – July 2026 · If UA488 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
What stands out
How UA488 compares to other flight numbers, not just to itself.
This flight runs unusually far ahead of the carrier's own average on this route, better than 99% of 11,589 comparable flight numbers.
83.8% on time for this specific departure, against 68.1% for the same carrier's other flights on this route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · March 2024 – July 2026 · The one thing about this specific departure that ranks most extreme against every other published flight number, out of everything FlyerIntel checks — shown only when something clears a real statistical bar, not for every flight.
Where UA488 is right now
A live reading, only if you ask for it. It is not part of the reliability record above.
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Against the rest of the route
| Flight or route | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UA488 | 83.8% | 0.68% | -6 min | 3.9% | 740 |
| United Airlines on BUR → SFO | 68.1% | 0.97% | -1 min | 13.6% | 3,292 |
| All BUR → SFO flights | 69.3% | 1.25% | -2 min | 11.3% | 9,645 |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · March 2024 – July 2026
Why UA488 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for UA488 on BUR → SFO. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering March 2024 – July 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies UA488 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
UA488 is usually the aircraft’s first flight of the day: the schedule gives it a median of 9.3 hours on the ground at BUR, so its “inbound” is mostly the aircraft’s arrival the evening before.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, UA488 pushed back an average of 0 minutes early; when it came in on time or early, an average of 0 minutes early.
Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into BUR just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 722 of 735 departures in all. A departure is left out when that flight is unknown, was cancelled or diverted, or the aircraft had sat for more than 12 hours. A flight the airline cancelled never left and is not in the count, and one flown by a substitute aircraft is matched to the aircraft that flew it, not to the one first planned.
Against the network at the same turn length
| Share of departures | Inbound landed 15+ late | Left 15+ late after a late inbound | Left 15+ late after an on-time inbound |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA488 | 21% | 8% | 8% |
| Network, same turn | 29% | 12% | 9% |
A night on the ground absorbs most of a late arrival, so a late inbound matters far less on a turn this long than on a same-day one.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 6 hours or more, usually overnight. How often UA488’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often UA488 left 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s.
More: Which Flight Numbers Pay for a Late Aircraft lists the flight numbers that pass a late aircraft on.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering March 2024 – July 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves BUR late, does that still matter by the time it reaches SFO?
On arrival at SFO, UA488 spends 11.0 min taxiing from touchdown to the gate — ground time a connecting passenger sits through before they can even leave the aircraft, on top of however late the flight itself ran. That is 3.1 minutes longer than a typical SFO arrival (7.9 min).
Departure delay is averaged over every pushback and arrival delay over every completed arrival, so the two counts differ by the flights that never reached SFO. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 12,673 departures from BUR scheduled in the clock hour UA488 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at SFO (436,060 flights), not just UA488’s own. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · March 2024 – July 2026
The hour it leaves BUR
Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. UA488 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 12,673 departures from BUR are scheduled in the 7 AM–8 AM hour over the period, against 93,645 across the whole day.
UA488 is scheduled out of BUR at 7:00 AM, in the 7 AM–8 AM bank. Departures from BUR in that hour arrive on time 92.8% of the time against 82.8% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 10.0 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
The two airport figures cover every departure from BUR to every destination, so they describe the slot rather than this journey — the like-for-like comparison against the route is above. Hours are scheduled local, and a number whose schedule moved between banks inside the period has no single hour and is not described here at all. Why the hour matters.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · March 2024 – July 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
Other routes UA488 has flown
A flight number is a slot in a schedule, and carriers reassign it. These are the other city pairs this number served in the analysis period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| SFO→IND San Francisco to Indianapolis | May 1, 2025 – June 24, 2026 | 55 | — |
| SFO→RDU San Francisco to Raleigh–Durham | December 3, 2024 – May 20, 2026 | 61 | — |
| SFO→ORD San Francisco to Chicago | February 12, 2026 – March 28, 2026 | 45 | — |
| ORD→IAD Chicago to Washington | March 5–28, 2026 | 18 | — |
| DTW→IAH Detroit to Houston | December 18, 2025 – January 5, 2026 | 19 | — |
| IAH→FLL Houston to Fort Lauderdale | December 18, 2025 – January 5, 2026 | 19 | — |
| IAH→ORD Houston to Chicago | September 1–14, 2025 | 3 | — |
| SFO→IAH San Francisco to Houston | August 19, 2024 – October 26, 2024 | 69 | — |
| SFO→LAS San Francisco to Las Vegas | May 23, 2024 – June 26, 2024 | 35 | — |
| LGA→DEN New York to Denver | May 2, 2024 | 1 | — |
| FSD→DEN Sioux Falls to Denver | March 7–30, 2024 | 24 | — |
| DEN→PHX Denver to Phoenix | October 29, 2023 – March 6, 2024 | 122 | 77.6% |
| IAH→PBI Houston to West Palm Beach | November 24–25, 2023 | 2 | — |
| TUL→DEN Tulsa to Denver | September 29, 2023 – October 28, 2023 | 22 | — |
| ABQ→DEN Albuquerque to Denver | October 6–14, 2023 | 6 | — |
| BNA→EWR Nashville to Newark | October 1, 2023 | 1 | — |
| MSN→DEN Madison to Denver | September 30, 2023 | 1 | — |
| AUS→EWR Austin to Newark | September 5–28, 2023 | 24 | — |
| CLE→EWR Cleveland to Newark | July 1, 2023 – September 4, 2023 | 66 | — |
Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route UA488 currently operates. Blending them would produce an average of two different flights.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
25 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 740 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering March 2024 – July 2026
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 740 records of UA488 operating BUR → SFO, published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after schedule. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and reported separately. Flight numbers are resolved as carrier plus number plus route, because the same number serves different routes over time.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: Most and Least Reliable Flight Numbers · The Delay You Inherit · Making Up Time in the Air
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