Holiday travel
Labor Day at SFO
San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, CA. July 2023 – July 2026. Set against SFO’s own ordinary days of the same weekday in the weeks around each holiday.
The window, year by year
The window runs the Saturday through the Monday, around Labor Day (the first Monday of September). In the data: Sep 2–4, 2023; Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2024; Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2025. Three windows are in the data: enough to see whether a day repeats, not enough to call it a rule.
Labor Day flights ran better than ordinary days in all three years. The gap ran from 4.1 points above usual in 2023 to 5.6 points above usual in 2025.
0.27% of scheduled departures were cancelled across the Labor Day windows, against 0.67% on ordinary days of the same weekdays. It was lower in two of the three years.
| Year | Departures | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Sep 2–4, 2023 | 1,112 | 84.8% | 80.7% | +4.1better | 0.18% | 0.67% |
| 2024Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2024 | 1,111 | 85.3% | 80.6% | +4.7better | 0.18% | 0.67% |
| 2025Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2025 | 1,124 | 86.2% | 80.6% | +5.6better | 0.44% | 0.67% |
| All years3 windows | 3,347 | 85.4% | 80.7% | +4.7better | 0.27% | 0.67% |
Day by day
No day was the worst more than once: Sunday, Sep 3 in 2023, Saturday, Aug 31 in 2024, and Monday, Sep 1 in 2025.
The Sunday before Labor Day was the best day of the window in two of the three years. Over the years it ran 87.0% on time, 10.0 points above an ordinary Sunday.
- Better than usual
- Worse than usual
- About the same
- What ordinary days of the same weekday had
- Lowest to highest single year
- Lighter bars: days just outside the window
Bars show the on-time arrival rate and start at 60%, not zero. A dashed stub is a day with too few flights to print a rate.
| Day | Departures against an ordinary day | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Each year: 2023, 2024, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 78.9% | 79.6% | −0.7about the same | 0.65% | 83.8 · 73.8 · 79.1 |
| Friday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 70.1% | 78.5% | −8.4worse | 1.54% | 65.3 · 66.8 · 77.9 |
| Saturday before | 4% fewer | 85.2% | 85.1% | +0.1about the same | 0.19% | 87.0 · 79.9 · 88.6 |
| Sunday before | 12% fewer | 87.0% | 77.0% | +10.0better | 0.37% | 83.1 · 88.9 · 88.9 |
| Labor Day | about the same | 84.2% | 80.1% | +4.1better | 0.24% | 84.3 · 86.6 · 81.8 |
| Tuesday afteroutside the window | 3% fewer | 85.8% | 86.2% | −0.4about the same | 0.09% | 84.6 · 89.5 · 83.4 |
A dash means fewer than 120 flights stood behind the figure, or behind the ordinary days it would be compared with: too few to print a rate, and nothing is estimated in its place. “Usual” is what ordinary days of the same weekday had at the same place in the weeks around the holiday, weighted by the flights being compared.
Which departure times held up
The busiest days at SFO were Sunday, Sep 3, 2023 (356 departures), Monday, Sep 4, 2023 (407 departures), Sunday, Sep 1, 2024 (360 departures), Monday, Sep 2, 2024 (413 departures), Sunday, Aug 31, 2025 (365 departures), and Monday, Sep 1, 2025 (414 departures).
Across the whole window, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 90.3%, 1.9 points above usual for that time of day. Those leaving 3–6 PM had the lowest: 82.9%, still 4.2 points above usual for that time of day.
The holiday helped flights leaving 9 AM–12 PM the most (6.4 points above usual for that time of day) and those leaving 5–9 AM the least (1.9 points above).
On each year’s two busiest days, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 91.4%, 3.6 points above usual for that time of day. Those leaving 12–3 PM had the lowest: 81.9%, still 6.8 points above usual for that time of day.
The holiday helped flights leaving 9 AM–12 PM the most (10.0 points above usual for that time of day) and those leaving 5–9 AM the least (3.6 points above).
| Leaving | On time, whole window | Usual | Gap, points | On time, busiest days | Usual | Gap, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 90.3% | 88.4% | +1.9about the same | 91.4% | 87.8% | +3.6better |
| 9 AM–12 PM | 83.1% | 76.7% | +6.4better | 84.2% | 74.2% | +10.0better |
| 12–3 PM | 83.5% | 77.4% | +6.1better | 81.9% | 75.1% | +6.8better |
| 3–6 PM | 82.9% | 78.7% | +4.2better | 82.4% | 76.6% | +5.8better |
| 6–9 PM | 84.1% | 79.6% | +4.5better | 83.1% | 76.7% | +6.4better |
| 9 PM–5 AM | 87.4% | 81.3% | +6.1better | 88.2% | 79.5% | +8.7better |
SFO beside every covered airport
Storms and outages move whole regions at once. This puts SFO’s year beside the year of all covered airports together, each against its own usual, to show whether SFO did better or worse than the network.
| Year | SFO on time | SFO, gap from usual | All airports on time | All airports, gap from usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Sep 2–4, 2023 | 84.8% | +4.1 | 87.4% | +7.6 |
| 2024Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2024 | 85.3% | +4.7 | 82.1% | +2.4 |
| 2025Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2025 | 86.2% | +5.6 | 82.2% | +2.5 |
For every holiday at once, see the five holidays at SFO, or the network view.