Route profile
OAK→SLC
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Oakland to Salt Lake City, 588 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 99% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,777 flights. How this is calculated
OAK → SLC arrives on time 88.8% of the time; the return trip, SLC → OAK, arrives on time 88.3% of the time.
OAK → SLC spends 19.5 minutes on the ground on a 588-mile trip: 13.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at OAK and 5.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at SLC.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route holds up about the same all year, a steadier seasonal pattern than 99% of 3,357 comparable routes.
92.7% on time in its best month (October) against 85.5% in its worst (December).
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 3,357 in the comparison.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
17 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 5,777 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SLC after arriving from OAK.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 22% | High risk |
| 45 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 6.8% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.5% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.1% | 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 0.12% of the time and diverts 0.09% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,765 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 17 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,777 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
OAK → SLC flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 95.8% of the time, against 72.4% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 23.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 95.9% on time from 659 flights
- 6 AM: 96.1% on time from 968 flights
- 7 AM: 95.5% on time from 178 flights
- 8 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 93.5% on time from 858 flights
- 1 PM: 90.1% on time from 621 flights
- 2 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 92.2% on time from 371 flights
- 5 PM: 89.9% on time from 728 flights
- 6 PM: 83.7% on time from 166 flights
- 7 PM: 75.0% on time from 308 flights
- 8 PM: 66.8% on time from 477 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why OAK → SLC runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
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
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for OAK → SLC. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,445 | 93.6% | 0.12% | -13 min | 2.4% |
| Southwest Airlines | 2,443 | 82.0% | 0.00% | -6 min | 4.9% |
| Delta Air Lines | 889 | 94.7% | 0.45% | -16 min | 2.7% |
SkyWest Airlines flew 42.3% of the 5,777 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 12.7 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly San Francisco to Salt Lake City
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SFO→SLC San Francisco to Salt Lake City | 10,847 | 79.0% | 0.68% | -7 min | 68 |
| OAK→SLC this route Oakland to Salt Lake City | 5,777 | 88.8% | 0.12% | -10 min | 91 |
OAK → SLC is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 88.8% on time, against 79.0% for SFO → SLC.
Flying to SLC from the San Francisco area? Compare OAK, SFO, SJC for SLC, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| OO4134 SkyWest Airlines | 12:30 PM | 778 | 94.5% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 88.8%
- Feb: 88.8%
- Mar: 89.3%
- Apr: 89.4%
- May: 88.2%
- Jun: 87.7%
- Jul: 86.7%
- Aug: 87.9%
- Sep: 90.8%
- Oct: 92.7%
- Nov: 90.7%
- Dec: 85.5%
December is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 7.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 85.6% from 174 flights
- August 2023: 86.0% from 180 flights
- September 2023: 89.0% from 172 flights
- October 2023: 91.5% from 177 flights
- November 2023: 92.6% from 175 flights
- December 2023: 84.2% from 183 flights
- January 2024: 82.4% from 171 flights
- February 2024: 88.2% from 153 flights
- March 2024: 89.3% from 170 flights
- April 2024: 92.3% from 168 flights
- May 2024: 90.1% from 171 flights
- June 2024: 88.4% from 164 flights
- July 2024: 85.4% from 174 flights
- August 2024: 86.2% from 175 flights
- September 2024: 91.8% from 171 flights
- October 2024: 92.9% from 169 flights
- November 2024: 91.9% from 149 flights
- December 2024: 87.3% from 157 flights
- January 2025: 92.8% from 153 flights
- February 2025: 90.5% from 147 flights
- March 2025: 87.7% from 163 flights
- April 2025: 89.2% from 158 flights
- May 2025: 92.0% from 163 flights
- June 2025: 87.1% from 147 flights
- July 2025: 92.0% from 150 flights
- August 2025: 92.0% from 150 flights
- September 2025: 91.8% from 146 flights
- October 2025: 94.0% from 150 flights
- November 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- December 2025: 85.1% from 121 flights
- January 2026: 92.2% from 142 flights
- February 2026: 87.8% from 148 flights
- March 2026: 91.0% from 145 flights
- April 2026: 86.1% from 137 flights
- May 2026: 81.6% from 141 flights
- June 2026: 87.6% from 121 flights
- July 2026: 83.7% from 123 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 88.5% against 90.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,777 OAK → SLC 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