Route profile
IND→SFO
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Indianapolis to San Francisco, 1,943 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 57% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,434 flights. How this is calculated
IND → SFO arrives on time 79.5% of the time; the return trip, SFO → IND, arrives on time 81.0% of the time.
IND → SFO spends 24.3 minutes on the ground on a 1,943-mile trip: 16.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IND and 8.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at SFO.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where IND to SFO differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IND to SFO struggles most at 7 PM: 55.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 11.8 points behind the 67.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.2 points.
In April, IND to SFO runs 7.3 points below routes of similar length, 73.3% on time to 80.6%.
IND to SFO against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 55.6% | routes of similar length | 67.4% | −11.8 pts | 225 here, 43,423 there |
| Month: April | 73.3% | routes of similar length | 80.6% | −7.3 pts | 131 here, 90,521 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 1,943 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
44 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 1,434 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SFO after arriving from IND.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 36% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.9% | 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 1.12% of the time and diverts 0.07% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,417 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 44 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,434 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IND → SFO flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 85.3% of the time, against 61.8% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 23.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 88.6% on time from 265 flights
- 7 AM: 83.8% on time from 504 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 85.5% on time from 166 flights
- 10 AM to 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 55.6% on time from 226 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IND → SFO runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
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 IND → SFO. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,434 | 79.5% | 1.12% | -6 min | 6.8% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA500 United Airlines | 6:00 AM | 851 | 85.1% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 74.5% against 82.4% in the 12 months before — declining by 7.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,434 IND → SFO 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