Route profile
SAN→PHX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Diego to Phoenix, 304 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 45% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 17,685 flights. How this is calculated
SAN → PHX arrives on time 77.5% of the time; the return trip, PHX → SAN, arrives on time 75.8% of the time.
SAN → PHX spends 27.3 minutes on the ground on a 304-mile trip: 19.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SAN and 7.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at PHX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Why SAN → PHX flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SAN → PHX cancelled 235 of 17,685 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 75. The reason filed most often was the airline, 43.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 173 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 235 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.
102 cancellations, 43.4% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
93 cancellations, 39.6% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
40 cancellations, 17.0% 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.
235 coded cancellations were recorded on SAN → PHX; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
43 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 17,685 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PHX after arriving from SAN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 39% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.9% | 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 1.33% of the time and diverts 0.08% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 17,435 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 43 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 17,685 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SAN → PHX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.0% of the time, against 68.0% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 22.0 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 matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 7.9 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 5.0 points.
| Hour | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 AM–7 AM | |||||||
| 7 AM–8 AM | |||||||
| 8 AM–9 AM | |||||||
| 9 AM–10 AM | |||||||
| 10 AM–11 AM | |||||||
| 11 AM–12 PM | |||||||
| 12 PM–1 PM | |||||||
| 1 PM–2 PM | |||||||
| 2 PM–3 PM | |||||||
| 3 PM–4 PM | |||||||
| 4 PM–5 PM | |||||||
| 5 PM–6 PM | |||||||
| 6 PM–7 PM | |||||||
| 7 PM–8 PM | |||||||
| 8 PM–9 PM | |||||||
| 9 PM–10 PM |
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 (290 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 | 92.1% on time243 flights | 91.0% on time255 flights | 93.8% on time263 flights | 92.7% on time248 flights | 91.6% on time243 flights | 93.5% on time248 flights | 94.5% on time224 flights |
| 7 AM–8 AM | 109 flights, too few to score | 96 flights, too few to score | 98 flights, too few to score | 105 flights, too few to score | 111 flights, too few to score | 70 flights, too few to score | 101 flights, too few to score |
| 8 AM–9 AM | 85.3% on time165 flights | 84.8% on time151 flights | 91.6% on time155 flights | 85.1% on time162 flights | 86.6% on time161 flights | 83.6% on time122 flights | 84.0% on time154 flights |
| 9 AM–10 AM | 82.4% on time193 flights | 88.3% on time163 flights | 85.2% on time177 flights | 84.4% on time208 flights | 81.8% on time207 flights | 86.3% on time183 flights | 81.3% on time177 flights |
| 10 AM–11 AM | 80.8% on time185 flights | 86.4% on time143 flights | 84.6% on time152 flights | 82.3% on time165 flights | 77.8% on time174 flights | 83.7% on time157 flights | 82.9% on time177 flights |
| 11 AM–12 PM | 97 flights, too few to score | 97 flights, too few to score | 96 flights, too few to score | 101 flights, too few to score | 105 flights, too few to score | 101 flights, too few to score | 103 flights, too few to score |
| 12 PM–1 PM | 74.4% on time178 flights | 81.2% on time219 flights | 76.6% on time211 flights | 68.9% on time177 flights | 68.4% on time182 flights | 82.1% on time156 flights | 70.3% on time196 flights |
| 1 PM–2 PM | 76.6% on time186 flights | 81.7% on time127 flights | 85.0% on time134 flights | 69.9% on time209 flights | 65.1% on time200 flights | 82.8% on time146 flights | 69.2% on time149 flights |
| 2 PM–3 PM | 112 flights, too few to score | 84.2% on time123 flights | 79.4% on time142 flights | 90 flights, too few to score | 115 flights, too few to score | 79 flights, too few to score | 116 flights, too few to score |
| 3 PM–4 PM | 77.2% on time146 flights | 82.1% on time140 flights | 79.5% on time123 flights | 77.9% on time152 flights | 68.5% on time145 flights | 84 flights, too few to score | 69.6% on time136 flights |
| 4 PM–5 PM | 76.2% on time265 flights | 84.5% on time304 flights | 76.8% on time298 flights | 64.6% on time264 flights | 65.0% on time261 flights | 83.6% on time252 flights | 68.5% on time253 flights |
| 5 PM–6 PM | 62.7% on time135 flights | 87 flights, too few to score | 87 flights, too few to score | 60.8% on time128 flights | 61.8% on time133 flights | 65 flights, too few to score | 61.5% on time120 flights |
| 6 PM–7 PM | 109 flights, too few to score | 100 flights, too few to score | 108 flights, too few to score | 55.8% on time131 flights | 114 flights, too few to score | 95 flights, too few to score | 67.4% on time133 flights |
| 7 PM–8 PM | 66.5% on time237 flights | 73.9% on time176 flights | 75.4% on time194 flights | 65.3% on time265 flights | 64.0% on time247 flights | 71.5% on time179 flights | 67.8% on time239 flights |
| 8 PM–9 PM | 63.5% on time152 flights | 110 flights, too few to score | 107 flights, too few to score | 57.4% on time126 flights | 57.9% on time144 flights | 71 flights, too few to score | 60.9% on time143 flights |
| 9 PM–10 PM | 65.2% on time120 flights | 70 flights, too few to score | 71 flights, too few to score | 66.9% on time128 flights | 69.6% on time143 flights | 56 flights, too few to score | 65.6% on time157 flights |
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 92.7% on time from 1,724 flights
- 7 AM: 89.6% on time from 690 flights
- 8 AM: 85.9% on time from 1,070 flights
- 9 AM: 84.1% on time from 1,308 flights
- 10 AM: 82.5% on time from 1,153 flights
- 11 AM: 80.8% on time from 700 flights
- 12 PM: 74.6% on time from 1,319 flights
- 1 PM: 74.8% on time from 1,151 flights
- 2 PM: 71.8% on time from 777 flights
- 3 PM: 76.4% on time from 926 flights
- 4 PM: 74.4% on time from 1,897 flights
- 5 PM: 69.8% on time from 755 flights
- 6 PM: 68.2% on time from 790 flights
- 7 PM: 68.7% on time from 1,537 flights
- 8 PM: 66.7% on time from 853 flights
- 9 PM: 70.6% on time from 745 flights
- 10 PM: 73.7% on time from 290 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SAN → PHX runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
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 → PHX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SAN → PHX, at 63.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.0% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 68.0%.
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 PHX: 3.5 times the normal rate at SAN and 3.9 times at PHX. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: SAN 3.5% against 1.0%, PHX 2.5% against 0.6%. Flights that did leave PHX in bad weather arrived on time 53.7% of the time, against 80.6% in normal hours.
Bad weather and normal hours at the airports
Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026| Departures from | SAN | PHX |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 3.5% | 2.5% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.0% | 0.6% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 66.7% | 53.7% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 78.4% | 80.6% |
| Departures in bad weather | 19,707 | 6,215 |
Of the carriers on this route, American Airlines (1.7% cancelled against 3.7% for the other carriers at SAN) cancelled the fewest departures from SAN in bad weather and SkyWest Airlines (5.5% cancelled against 3.3% for the other carriers at SAN) the most.
This route’s airlines in bad weather at SAN
All departures from SAN| Airline | Bad-weather departures | Cancelled | Other carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 2,200 | 1.7%below the others | 3.7% |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,278 | 3.2%about level | 3.6% |
| 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 PHX, 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), PHX, 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 | 9,906 | 77.8% | 1.43% | -4 min | 5.6% |
| American Airlines | 5,341 | 80.6% | 0.49% | -6 min | 7.4% |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,714 | 69.5% | 2.10% | -2 min | 11.3% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 507 | 65.8% | 5.33% | 5 min | 10.0% |
| Alaska Airlines | 217 | 77.9% | 1.84% | -4 min | 4.7% |
Southwest Airlines flew 56.0% of the 17,685 flights listed. SkyWest Airlines cancelled 5.33% of its flights here against 0.49% for American Airlines.
American Airlines arrived on time 14.8 percentage points more often than SkyWest 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA625 American Airlines | 6:30 AM | 952 | 91.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 12.4 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.4%
- Feb: 83.5%
- Mar: 79.2%
- Apr: 78.6%
- May: 79.2%
- Jun: 70.5%
- Jul: 68.8%
- Aug: 77.8%
- Sep: 81.7%
- Oct: 74.4%
- Nov: 77.8%
- Dec: 80.3%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 14.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 69.5% from 431 flights
- August 2023: 78.1% from 455 flights
- September 2023: 84.0% from 480 flights
- October 2023: 79.6% from 500 flights
- November 2023: 85.1% from 480 flights
- December 2023: 86.1% from 499 flights
- January 2024: 82.4% from 463 flights
- February 2024: 82.6% from 426 flights
- March 2024: 79.4% from 481 flights
- April 2024: 80.1% from 460 flights
- May 2024: 81.1% from 480 flights
- June 2024: 69.7% from 488 flights
- July 2024: 68.6% from 504 flights
- August 2024: 81.5% from 476 flights
- September 2024: 80.7% from 457 flights
- October 2024: 71.9% from 511 flights
- November 2024: 82.5% from 486 flights
- December 2024: 75.9% from 455 flights
- January 2025: 86.8% from 442 flights
- February 2025: 83.8% from 418 flights
- March 2025: 79.2% from 468 flights
- April 2025: 77.5% from 452 flights
- May 2025: 81.1% from 468 flights
- June 2025: 73.4% from 456 flights
- July 2025: 76.4% from 473 flights
- August 2025: 73.7% from 473 flights
- September 2025: 80.4% from 500 flights
- October 2025: 71.9% from 546 flights
- November 2025: 65.7% from 503 flights
- December 2025: 78.4% from 463 flights
- January 2026: 78.1% from 451 flights
- February 2026: 84.1% from 425 flights
- March 2026: 79.1% from 505 flights
- April 2026: 78.2% from 520 flights
- May 2026: 76.1% from 554 flights
- June 2026: 68.7% from 507 flights
- July 2026: 61.7% from 529 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 74.4% against 79.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 17,685 SAN → PHX 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