Route profile
SAN→SLC
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Diego to Salt Lake City, 626 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 85% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 8,291 flights. How this is calculated
SAN → SLC arrives on time 83.8% of the time; the return trip, SLC → SAN, arrives on time 81.8% of the time, a 2.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SAN → SLC spends 28.7 minutes on the ground on a 626-mile trip: 21.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SAN and 6.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at SLC.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route holds up about the same all year, a steadier seasonal pattern than 97% of 3,357 comparable routes.
87.7% on time in its best month (April) against 78.7% in its worst (July).
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 3,357 in the comparison.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
30 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 8,291 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SLC after arriving from SAN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.8% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.0% | 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 0.48% of the time and diverts 0.10% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 8,243 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 30 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 8,291 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SAN → SLC flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.8% of the time, against 77.9% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 12.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 95.2% on time from 1,170 flights
- 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 81.9% on time from 592 flights
- 9 AM: 89.0% on time from 719 flights
- 10 AM: 85.4% on time from 917 flights
- 11 AM: 75.4% on time from 252 flights
- 12 PM: 81.3% on time from 171 flights
- 1 PM: 82.1% on time from 1,340 flights
- 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 63.6% on time from 176 flights
- 4 PM: 68.9% on time from 177 flights
- 5 PM: 80.7% on time from 1,460 flights
- 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 84.9% on time from 982 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SAN → SLC 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 → SLC. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SAN → SLC, at 55.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.8% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 77.9%.
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 | 5,348 | 87.3% | 0.50% | -8 min | 4.6% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,477 | 77.8% | 0.54% | -6 min | 7.2% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,249 | 76.4% | 0.24% | -2 min | 5.6% |
Delta Air Lines flew 66.2% of the 8,074 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 10.9 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL1117 (6:15 AM) arrived on time 95.3% of the time, 16.9 points more often than OO3488 (8:00 AM) at 78.4%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 9.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 83.6%
- Feb: 86.2%
- Mar: 84.8%
- Apr: 87.7%
- May: 84.8%
- Jun: 79.7%
- Jul: 78.7%
- Aug: 82.6%
- Sep: 86.1%
- Oct: 82.8%
- Nov: 87.2%
- Dec: 83.9%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 9.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 78.2% from 206 flights
- August 2023: 81.3% from 201 flights
- September 2023: 91.3% from 173 flights
- October 2023: 86.9% from 183 flights
- November 2023: 92.5% from 173 flights
- December 2023: 91.8% from 207 flights
- January 2024: 82.9% from 222 flights
- February 2024: 86.9% from 199 flights
- March 2024: 82.3% from 232 flights
- April 2024: 88.1% from 219 flights
- May 2024: 87.1% from 209 flights
- June 2024: 76.4% from 220 flights
- July 2024: 77.2% from 242 flights
- August 2024: 83.5% from 241 flights
- September 2024: 81.1% from 202 flights
- October 2024: 76.4% from 212 flights
- November 2024: 86.7% from 195 flights
- December 2024: 79.7% from 229 flights
- January 2025: 83.7% from 209 flights
- February 2025: 83.0% from 194 flights
- March 2025: 84.7% from 236 flights
- April 2025: 86.5% from 229 flights
- May 2025: 84.4% from 211 flights
- June 2025: 80.5% from 215 flights
- July 2025: 79.1% from 221 flights
- August 2025: 82.7% from 208 flights
- September 2025: 86.5% from 180 flights
- October 2025: 85.3% from 238 flights
- November 2025: 84.0% from 268 flights
- December 2025: 81.3% from 275 flights
- January 2026: 84.0% from 252 flights
- February 2026: 88.2% from 259 flights
- March 2026: 86.9% from 294 flights
- April 2026: 88.5% from 272 flights
- May 2026: 83.2% from 240 flights
- June 2026: 82.1% from 254 flights
- July 2026: 80.1% from 271 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 84.4% against 82.4% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 8,291 SAN → SLC 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