Route profile
ATL→SAN
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Atlanta to San Diego, 1,892 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 63% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,420 flights. How this is calculated
ATL → SAN arrives on time 77.0% of the time; the return trip, SAN → ATL, arrives on time 83.7% of the time, a 6.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ATL → SAN spends 24.1 minutes on the ground on a 1,892-mile trip: 17.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ATL and 7.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at SAN.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where ATL to SAN differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
ATL to SAN is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 87.5% arrive on time, 13.3 points ahead of the 74.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.4 points.
ATL to SAN struggles most at 10 PM: 69.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9 points behind the 78.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
Thursday is the day ATL to SAN slips furthest against routes of similar length, 73.4% on time where they average 77.1%, 3.7 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 3.4 points.
In May, ATL to SAN runs 6.6 points below routes of similar length, 69.4% on time to 76.0%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.9 points.
Alaska Airlines’ flights on ATL to SAN arrive on time 69.5% of the time, 6.7 points below the 76.2% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 8.5 points.
ATL to SAN against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 87.5% | routes of similar length | 74.2% | +13.3 pts | 353 here, 55,358 there |
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 69.9% | routes of similar length | 78.9% | −9.0 pts | 193 here, 46,855 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 73.4% | routes of similar length | 77.1% | −3.7 pts | 1,066 here, 169,411 there |
| Month: May | 69.4% | routes of similar length | 76.0% | −6.6 pts | 625 here, 99,558 there |
| Airline: Alaska Airlines | 69.5% | routes of similar length | 76.2% | −6.7 pts | 626 here, 96,028 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 1,892 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why ATL → SAN flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
ATL → SAN cancelled 60 of 7,420 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 124. The reason filed most often was the airline, 50.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 247 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 60 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
30 cancellations, 50.0% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
29 cancellations, 48.3% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
1 cancellation, 1.7% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
60 coded cancellations were recorded on ATL → SAN; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
38 min late
against a median of 2 min early
Percentiles over 7,420 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SAN after arriving from ATL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 45% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 2.8% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 0.81% of the time and diverts 0.63% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,313 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 38 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,420 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ATL → SAN flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 84.9% of the time, against 69.5% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 15.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 84.9% on time from 1,113 flights
- 9 AM: 75.5% on time from 302 flights
- 10 AM: 83.4% on time from 170 flights
- 11 AM: 79.9% on time from 1,071 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 87.5% on time from 356 flights
- 2 PM: 82.2% on time from 594 flights
- 3 PM: 77.4% on time from 238 flights
- 4 PM: 71.9% on time from 748 flights
- 5 PM: 71.4% on time from 845 flights
- 6 PM: 69.8% on time from 390 flights
- 7 PM: 68.8% on time from 556 flights
- 8 PM: 71.4% on time from 141 flights
- 9 PM: 74.2% on time from 669 flights
- 10 PM: 69.9% on time from 202 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why ATL → SAN runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for ATL → SAN. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 6,595 | 78.1% | 0.74% | -2 min | 4.9% |
| Alaska Airlines | 640 | 69.5% | 1.41% | 2 min | 9.1% |
Delta Air Lines flew 91.2% of the 7,235 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 8.6 percentage points more often than Alaska Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL725 (8:20 AM) arrived on time 84.8% of the time, 11.1 points more often than DL712 (4:55 PM) at 73.7%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.5%
- Feb: 81.9%
- Mar: 81.6%
- Apr: 76.3%
- May: 69.4%
- Jun: 74.3%
- Jul: 69.5%
- Aug: 77.2%
- Sep: 80.2%
- Oct: 79.9%
- Nov: 82.4%
- Dec: 77.9%
May is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 13.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 72.8% from 235 flights
- August 2023: 71.4% from 219 flights
- September 2023: 83.7% from 202 flights
- October 2023: 84.0% from 189 flights
- November 2023: 90.4% from 178 flights
- December 2023: 90.0% from 191 flights
- January 2024: 88.1% from 143 flights
- February 2024: 88.5% from 142 flights
- March 2024: 90.0% from 171 flights
- April 2024: 80.1% from 171 flights
- May 2024: 62.0% from 213 flights
- June 2024: 79.3% from 242 flights
- July 2024: 58.7% from 240 flights
- August 2024: 80.4% from 230 flights
- September 2024: 78.6% from 216 flights
- October 2024: 77.8% from 231 flights
- November 2024: 76.0% from 221 flights
- December 2024: 70.1% from 208 flights
- January 2025: 71.3% from 172 flights
- February 2025: 74.8% from 151 flights
- March 2025: 70.3% from 196 flights
- April 2025: 70.8% from 196 flights
- May 2025: 69.6% from 228 flights
- June 2025: 63.8% from 226 flights
- July 2025: 71.4% from 230 flights
- August 2025: 79.4% from 229 flights
- September 2025: 78.4% from 217 flights
- October 2025: 78.6% from 233 flights
- November 2025: 82.2% from 218 flights
- December 2025: 74.3% from 215 flights
- January 2026: 77.5% from 179 flights
- February 2026: 82.9% from 165 flights
- March 2026: 85.8% from 186 flights
- April 2026: 78.7% from 178 flights
- May 2026: 77.8% from 185 flights
- June 2026: 80.8% from 178 flights
- July 2026: 76.0% from 196 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.3% against 73.0% in the 12 months before — improving by 6.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,420 ATL → SAN flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed