Route profile
SAN→ATL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Diego to Atlanta, 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 79% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,422 flights. How this is calculated
SAN → ATL arrives on time 83.7% of the time; the return trip, ATL → SAN, arrives on time 77.0% of the time, a 6.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SAN → ATL spends 32.3 minutes on the ground on a 1,892-mile trip: 23.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SAN and 9.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at ATL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 91% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 85.5% of the time, against 67.0% for Alaska Airlines, flying the exact same route.
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 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SAN to ATL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SAN to ATL struggles most at 9 AM: 58.7% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 23.3 points behind the 82.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 25.6 points.
SAN to ATL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 87.1% arrive on time, 15.4 points ahead of the 71.7% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 17.7 points.
SAN to ATL holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 85.0% on time to their 77.4%, a 7.6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.8 points.
April is kinder to SAN to ATL than to routes of similar length: 90.2% on time against 80.3%, 9.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.3 points.
Alaska Airlines’ flights on SAN to ATL arrive on time 67.0% of the time, 9.2 points below the 76.2% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 11 points.
SAN to ATL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 58.7% | routes of similar length | 82.0% | −23.3 pts | 189 here, 74,640 there |
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 87.1% | routes of similar length | 71.7% | +15.4 pts | 488 here, 30,922 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 85.0% | routes of similar length | 77.4% | +7.6 pts | 1,079 here, 169,594 there |
| Month: April | 90.2% | routes of similar length | 80.3% | +9.9 pts | 542 here, 93,218 there |
| Airline: Alaska Airlines | 67.0% | routes of similar length | 76.2% | −9.2 pts | 631 here, 96,023 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 SAN → ATL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SAN → ATL cancelled 67 of 7,422 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 111. The reason filed most often was the airline, 56.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 195 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 67 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.
38 cancellations, 56.7% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
28 cancellations, 41.8% 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, 1.5% 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.
67 coded cancellations were recorded on SAN → ATL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
26 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 7,422 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ATL after arriving from SAN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 8.6% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.3% | Low 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 0.90% of the time and diverts 0.44% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,322 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 26 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,422 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SAN → ATL flights departing 9 PM–5 AM arrived on time 88.2% of the time, against 77.1% for 9 AM–12 PM departures, a gap of 11.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 93.1% on time from 1,127 flights
- 7 AM: 85.8% on time from 557 flights
- 8 AM: 79.5% on time from 763 flights
- 9 AM: 58.7% on time from 193 flights
- 10 AM: 83.8% on time from 223 flights
- 11 AM: 78.7% on time from 1,188 flights
- 12 PM: 78.8% on time from 567 flights
- 1 PM: 80.3% on time from 199 flights
- 2 PM: 81.6% on time from 913 flights
- 3 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 87.1% on time from 497 flights
- 10 PM: 88.7% on time from 1,142 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SAN → ATL 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
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
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 SAN → ATL. 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 | 6,597 | 85.5% | 0.79% | -7 min | 3.9% |
| Alaska Airlines | 640 | 67.0% | 1.09% | 5 min | 8.7% |
Delta Air Lines flew 91.2% of the 7,237 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 18.5 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.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL729 Delta Air Lines | 6:15 AM | 785 | 92.5% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.2%
- Feb: 89.3%
- Mar: 81.3%
- Apr: 90.2%
- May: 85.4%
- Jun: 80.6%
- Jul: 75.8%
- Aug: 81.2%
- Sep: 89.3%
- Oct: 83.7%
- Nov: 89.4%
- Dec: 78.1%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 14.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 79.8% from 235 flights
- August 2023: 80.4% from 219 flights
- September 2023: 96.5% from 202 flights
- October 2023: 86.2% from 189 flights
- November 2023: 91.6% from 178 flights
- December 2023: 94.2% from 191 flights
- January 2024: 91.6% from 143 flights
- February 2024: 95.7% from 142 flights
- March 2024: 90.7% from 172 flights
- April 2024: 90.6% from 171 flights
- May 2024: 80.8% from 213 flights
- June 2024: 81.7% from 241 flights
- July 2024: 64.4% from 240 flights
- August 2024: 80.5% from 231 flights
- September 2024: 82.8% from 218 flights
- October 2024: 74.6% from 231 flights
- November 2024: 90.5% from 221 flights
- December 2024: 62.4% from 208 flights
- January 2025: 86.2% from 172 flights
- February 2025: 82.7% from 151 flights
- March 2025: 81.1% from 196 flights
- April 2025: 84.6% from 196 flights
- May 2025: 84.9% from 228 flights
- June 2025: 71.4% from 226 flights
- July 2025: 78.6% from 230 flights
- August 2025: 82.6% from 229 flights
- September 2025: 88.9% from 217 flights
- October 2025: 90.6% from 233 flights
- November 2025: 86.5% from 218 flights
- December 2025: 78.8% from 215 flights
- January 2026: 81.7% from 179 flights
- February 2026: 89.7% from 165 flights
- March 2026: 72.8% from 187 flights
- April 2026: 96.0% from 176 flights
- May 2026: 91.3% from 185 flights
- June 2026: 90.3% from 178 flights
- July 2026: 81.0% from 196 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.7% against 79.8% in the 12 months before — improving by 5.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,422 SAN → ATL 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