Route profile
SAN→EWR
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Diego to Newark, 2,425 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 47% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,909 flights. How this is calculated
SAN → EWR arrives on time 81.7% of the time; the return trip, EWR → SAN, arrives on time 77.6% of the time, a 4.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SAN → EWR spends 34.0 minutes on the ground on a 2,425-mile trip: 24.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SAN and 9.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at EWR.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where SAN to EWR differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SAN to EWR is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 80.1% arrive on time, 10.6 points ahead of the 69.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.7 points.
SAN to EWR struggles most at 12 PM: 70.2% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 7.2 points behind the 77.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.2 points.
SAN to EWR holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 83.8% on time to their 78.8%, a 5 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.7 points.
June is kinder to SAN to EWR than to routes of similar length: 84.2% on time against 74.3%, 9.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 11.5 points.
SAN to EWR against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 80.1% | routes of similar length | 69.5% | +10.6 pts | 267 here, 35,727 there |
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 70.2% | routes of similar length | 77.4% | −7.2 pts | 218 here, 47,814 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 83.8% | routes of similar length | 78.8% | +5.0 pts | 668 here, 146,538 there |
| Month: June | 84.2% | routes of similar length | 74.3% | +9.9 pts | 423 here, 95,749 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 2,425 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 → EWR flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SAN → EWR cancelled 97 of 4,909 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 51. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 66.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 77 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 97 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
64 cancellations, 66.0% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
23 cancellations, 23.7% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
10 cancellations, 10.3% 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.
97 coded cancellations were recorded on SAN → EWR; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
39 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 4,909 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at EWR after arriving from SAN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.3% | 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 1.98% of the time and diverts 1.06% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,760 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 39 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,909 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SAN → EWR flights departing 9 PM–5 AM arrived on time 90.1% of the time, against 70.1% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 20.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 87.5% on time from 367 flights
- 7 AM: 84.7% on time from 1,034 flights
- 8 AM: 78.4% on time from 621 flights
- 9 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 70.2% on time from 221 flights
- 1 PM: 71.4% on time from 473 flights
- 2 PM: 68.2% on time from 322 flights
- 3 PM to 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 80.1% on time from 276 flights
- 9 PM: 88.4% on time from 427 flights
- 10 PM: 90.8% on time from 958 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SAN → EWR runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s 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 → EWR. 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 | 3,905 | 82.8% | 1.92% | -10 min | 6.5% |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,004 | 77.4% | 2.19% | -9 min | 9.3% |
United Airlines flew 79.5% of the 4,909 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 5.4 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.
UA1827 (10:30 PM) arrived on time 89.2% of the time, 9.9 points more often than UA327 (7:00 AM) at 79.3%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 85.3%
- Feb: 88.0%
- Mar: 80.1%
- Apr: 83.6%
- May: 81.1%
- Jun: 84.2%
- Jul: 72.2%
- Aug: 79.3%
- Sep: 86.6%
- Oct: 82.6%
- Nov: 84.3%
- Dec: 80.0%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 15.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 66.4% from 155 flights
- August 2023: 79.6% from 155 flights
- September 2023: 83.0% from 149 flights
- October 2023: 89.3% from 152 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (118)
- December 2023: 87.9% from 124 flights
- January 2024: too few flights to score (100)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (102)
- March 2024: 87.9% from 125 flights
- April 2024: 85.4% from 148 flights
- May 2024: 84.8% from 153 flights
- June 2024: 85.1% from 150 flights
- July 2024: 74.3% from 155 flights
- August 2024: 81.4% from 155 flights
- September 2024: 91.2% from 150 flights
- October 2024: 75.0% from 150 flights
- November 2024: too few flights to score (117)
- December 2024: 74.4% from 124 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (98)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (100)
- March 2025: 79.0% from 124 flights
- April 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- May 2025: 63.6% from 137 flights
- June 2025: 87.2% from 136 flights
- July 2025: 77.1% from 154 flights
- August 2025: 77.0% from 155 flights
- September 2025: 85.4% from 143 flights
- October 2025: 83.3% from 145 flights
- November 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- December 2025: 77.5% from 124 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (99)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (100)
- March 2026: 73.2% from 124 flights
- April 2026: 94.1% from 120 flights
- May 2026: 94.0% from 135 flights
- June 2026: 80.3% from 144 flights
- July 2026: 70.8% from 153 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.2% against 79.2% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,909 SAN → EWR 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