Route profile
RDU→SFO
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Raleigh–Durham to San Francisco, 2,400 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 75% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,363 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
RDU → SFO arrives on time 80.5% of the time; the return trip, SFO → RDU, arrives on time 88.1% of the time, a 7.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
RDU → SFO spends 26.5 minutes on the ground on a 2,400-mile trip: 18.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at RDU and 8.3 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 RDU to SFO differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
RDU to SFO is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 79.0% arrive on time, 10.8 points ahead of the 68.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.2 points.
RDU to SFO holds up on Tuesdays better than routes of similar length do: 86.9% on time to their 81.8%, a 5.1 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
September is kinder to RDU to SFO than to routes of similar length: 89.6% on time against 82.1%, 7.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.2 points.
RDU to SFO against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 79.0% | routes of similar length | 68.2% | +10.8 pts | 233 here, 43,192 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 86.9% | routes of similar length | 81.8% | +5.1 pts | 282 here, 149,044 there |
| Month: September | 89.6% | routes of similar length | 82.1% | +7.5 pts | 183 here, 86,010 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 2,400 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
36 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 2,363 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SFO after arriving from RDU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.7% | 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 0.38% of the time and diverts 0.25% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,348 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 36 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,363 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
RDU → SFO flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.1% of the time, against 63.0% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 24.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 86.8% on time from 691 flights
- 7 AM: 86.8% on time from 266 flights
- 8 AM: 88.9% on time from 174 flights
- 9 AM: 80.6% on time from 218 flights
- 10 AM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 73.3% on time from 619 flights
- 7 PM: 79.0% on time from 233 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why RDU → 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 RDU → SFO. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 | 2,363 | 80.5% | 0.38% | -8 min | 6.2% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA1769 United Airlines | 6:15 PM | 961 | 72.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.5%
- Feb: 79.3%
- Mar: 81.8%
- Apr: 82.0%
- May: 77.0%
- Jun: 71.4%
- Jul: 69.4%
- Aug: 80.8%
- Sep: 89.6%
- Oct: 90.5%
- Nov: 88.1%
- Dec: 83.9%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 21.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.4% against 84.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,363 RDU → 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