Route profile
SAN→LAS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Diego to Las Vegas, 258 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 33% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 20,121 flights. How this is calculated
SAN → LAS arrives on time 75.2% of the time; the return trip, LAS → SAN, arrives on time 69.0% of the time, a 6.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SAN → LAS spends 28.0 minutes on the ground on a 258-mile trip: 20.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SAN and 7.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAS.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Which day you fly matters unusually much here, a wider weekday spread than 99% of 4,467 comparable routes.
84.5% on time on a typical Tuesday, against 65.5% on a Friday.
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 4,467 in the comparison.
Why SAN → LAS flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SAN → LAS cancelled 288 of 20,121 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 70. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 43.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 161 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 288 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.
125 cancellations, 43.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
86 cancellations, 29.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
77 cancellations, 26.7% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
288 coded cancellations were recorded on SAN → LAS; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
51 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 20,121 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LAS after arriving from SAN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 24% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.5% | 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 1.43% of the time and diverts 0.05% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 19,823 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 51 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 20,121 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SAN → LAS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.3% of the time, against 68.6% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 21.7 percentage points.
By day and hour
On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (SAN).
Hour of departure and day of the week matter about equally: hourly averages sit a typical 9.1 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 7.1 points.
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On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time
- 50–59
- 60–69
- 70–79
- 80–89
- 90–99
- Fewer than 120 flights, not scored
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.
No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures after 10 PM (309 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.
View as tableHide table
| Hour | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 AM–7 AM | 96.4% on time200 flights | 95.3% on time193 flights | 98.9% on time180 flights | 92.4% on time198 flights | 93.0% on time203 flights | 96.6% on time150 flights | 95.7% on time185 flights |
| 7 AM–8 AM | 95.2% on time171 flights | 93.6% on time127 flights | 94.6% on time129 flights | 95.3% on time171 flights | 91.8% on time173 flights | 106 flights, too few to score | 92.1% on time152 flights |
| 8 AM–9 AM | 81.1% on time221 flights | 86.1% on time232 flights | 86.1% on time232 flights | 81.5% on time233 flights | 79.9% on time244 flights | 87.0% on time210 flights | 84.9% on time256 flights |
| 9 AM–10 AM | 81.6% on time186 flights | 88.3% on time188 flights | 88.9% on time191 flights | 79.2% on time180 flights | 78.7% on time176 flights | 93 flights, too few to score | 85.1% on time162 flights |
| 10 AM–11 AM | 77.8% on time205 flights | 79.2% on time146 flights | 75.3% on time155 flights | 81.1% on time198 flights | 64.8% on time214 flights | 78.5% on time225 flights | 78.8% on time233 flights |
| 11 AM–12 PM | 83.3% on time133 flights | 84.9% on time152 flights | 85.8% on time155 flights | 71.7% on time127 flights | 67.5% on time121 flights | 91 flights, too few to score | 75.0% on time130 flights |
| 12 PM–1 PM | 66.9% on time175 flights | 82.7% on time135 flights | 82.9% on time141 flights | 68.4% on time174 flights | 50.8% on time180 flights | 105 flights, too few to score | 55.6% on time174 flights |
| 1 PM–2 PM | 73.5% on time172 flights | 73.7% on time139 flights | 78.8% on time167 flights | 60.0% on time166 flights | 59.2% on time170 flights | 104 flights, too few to score | 56.1% on time159 flights |
| 2 PM–3 PM | 64.1% on time159 flights | 77.8% on time162 flights | 76.6% on time138 flights | 60.0% on time165 flights | 56.8% on time153 flights | 84.3% on time140 flights | 71.7% on time186 flights |
| 3 PM–4 PM | 73.2% on time187 flights | 84.7% on time164 flights | 82.5% on time171 flights | 56.2% on time187 flights | 55.6% on time191 flights | 77.1% on time155 flights | 63.9% on time183 flights |
| 4 PM–5 PM | 68.3% on time164 flights | 88.1% on time137 flights | 119 flights, too few to score | 60.8% on time168 flights | 53.0% on time153 flights | 93 flights, too few to score | 61.3% on time170 flights |
| 5 PM–6 PM | 74.6% on time237 flights | 84.3% on time166 flights | 75.5% on time166 flights | 61.0% on time219 flights | 61.3% on time221 flights | 81.9% on time150 flights | 70.3% on time233 flights |
| 6 PM–7 PM | 73.8% on time196 flights | 78.1% on time179 flights | 75.5% on time187 flights | 59.4% on time201 flights | 51.1% on time194 flights | 81.9% on time171 flights | 70.6% on time201 flights |
| 7 PM–8 PM | 68.2% on time249 flights | 82.8% on time217 flights | 79.0% on time215 flights | 57.8% on time233 flights | 59.5% on time256 flights | 81.0% on time227 flights | 65.5% on time262 flights |
| 8 PM–9 PM | 61.5% on time192 flights | 86.5% on time156 flights | 81.8% on time145 flights | 51.2% on time207 flights | 60.1% on time192 flights | 117 flights, too few to score | 52.4% on time198 flights |
| 9 PM–10 PM | 67.3% on time225 flights | 109 flights, too few to score | 112 flights, too few to score | 62.4% on time239 flights | 59.1% on time244 flights | 116 flights, too few to score | 58.7% on time247 flights |
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 95.4% on time from 1,309 flights
- 7 AM: 94.0% on time from 1,029 flights
- 8 AM: 83.8% on time from 1,628 flights
- 9 AM: 84.1% on time from 1,176 flights
- 10 AM: 76.4% on time from 1,376 flights
- 11 AM: 78.8% on time from 909 flights
- 12 PM: 68.0% on time from 1,084 flights
- 1 PM: 67.9% on time from 1,077 flights
- 2 PM: 70.0% on time from 1,103 flights
- 3 PM: 69.9% on time from 1,238 flights
- 4 PM: 68.4% on time from 1,004 flights
- 5 PM: 71.7% on time from 1,392 flights
- 6 PM: 69.7% on time from 1,329 flights
- 7 PM: 70.1% on time from 1,659 flights
- 8 PM: 65.9% on time from 1,207 flights
- 9 PM: 67.0% on time from 1,292 flights
- 10 PM: 79.6% on time from 300 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SAN → LAS runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
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 → LAS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SAN → LAS, at 46.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.3% of the time and 12–3 PM departures 68.6%.
How this route holds up in bad weather
July 2023 – July 2026
Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of SAN to LAS: 3.5 times the normal rate at SAN and 2.4 times at LAS. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: SAN 3.5% against 1.0%, LAS 2.0% against 0.8%. Flights that did leave LAS in bad weather arrived on time 58.5% of the time, against 78.5% in normal hours.
Bad weather and normal hours at the airports
Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026| Departures from | SAN | LAS |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 3.5% | 2.0% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.0% | 0.8% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 66.7% | 58.5% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 78.4% | 78.5% |
| Departures in bad weather | 19,707 | 14,522 |
Southwest Airlines (4.5% cancelled against 3.2% for the other carriers at SAN), Frontier Airlines (5.1% cancelled against 3.4% for the other carriers at SAN) and SkyWest Airlines (5.5% cancelled against 3.3% for the other carriers at SAN) cancelled more departures from SAN in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly better. One more carrier flies this route but has too few bad-weather departures from SAN to compare.
This route’s airlines in bad weather at SAN
All departures from SAN| Airline | Bad-weather departures | Cancelled | Other carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 6,793 | 4.5%above the others | 3.2% |
| Frontier Airlines | 580 | 5.1%above the others | 3.4% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,629 | 5.5%above the others | 3.3% |
These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from SAN and LAS, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from SAN on every route.
Weather source and limits. In full: SAN (airlines), LAS, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 11,991 | 76.2% | 1.37% | -4 min | 7.2% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 3,688 | 72.0% | 1.27% | -1 min | 10.3% |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,863 | 80.2% | 1.47% | -7 min | 7.2% |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,565 | 66.2% | 2.17% | -1 min | 15.4% |
Southwest Airlines flew 59.6% of the 20,107 flights listed.
Spirit Airlines arrived on time 14.0 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 19.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.4%
- Feb: 80.3%
- Mar: 74.2%
- Apr: 76.3%
- May: 73.8%
- Jun: 70.3%
- Jul: 71.2%
- Aug: 76.3%
- Sep: 75.5%
- Oct: 69.2%
- Nov: 78.9%
- Dec: 76.2%
October is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 13.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 76.4% from 548 flights
- August 2023: 78.8% from 559 flights
- September 2023: 77.4% from 551 flights
- October 2023: 70.8% from 601 flights
- November 2023: 86.5% from 583 flights
- December 2023: 85.0% from 587 flights
- January 2024: 83.6% from 562 flights
- February 2024: 80.0% from 510 flights
- March 2024: 68.7% from 509 flights
- April 2024: 76.3% from 505 flights
- May 2024: 80.0% from 543 flights
- June 2024: 72.3% from 553 flights
- July 2024: 67.6% from 573 flights
- August 2024: 73.3% from 584 flights
- September 2024: 70.0% from 558 flights
- October 2024: 64.2% from 651 flights
- November 2024: 76.4% from 622 flights
- December 2024: 69.5% from 585 flights
- January 2025: 80.6% from 584 flights
- February 2025: 78.9% from 556 flights
- March 2025: 74.2% from 630 flights
- April 2025: 77.1% from 611 flights
- May 2025: 72.3% from 653 flights
- June 2025: 70.2% from 645 flights
- July 2025: 74.2% from 646 flights
- August 2025: 77.0% from 656 flights
- September 2025: 78.8% from 610 flights
- October 2025: 73.6% from 541 flights
- November 2025: 72.9% from 495 flights
- December 2025: 73.5% from 475 flights
- January 2026: 83.0% from 407 flights
- February 2026: 82.7% from 393 flights
- March 2026: 80.0% from 459 flights
- April 2026: 75.1% from 399 flights
- May 2026: 67.9% from 403 flights
- June 2026: 67.6% from 384 flights
- July 2026: 64.2% from 390 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 75.0% against 73.3% in the 12 months before — improving by 1.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 20,121 SAN → LAS 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