SEA → SNA Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · SEANo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:53 UTC

Seattle airport profile →

Destination · SNANo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:53 UTC

Santa Ana airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

84/ 100Strong

Better than 93% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 12,467 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

85.3%

10,514 of 12,331

Cancellation rate

0.82%

102 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-7 min

Average -0.7 min

Severe delays

3.3%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

52 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

12,467

3 carriers

SEA → SNA arrives on time 85.3% of the time; the return trip, SNA → SEA, arrives on time 85.5% of the time.

SEA → SNA spends 27.4 minutes on the ground on a 978-mile trip: 20.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SEA and 7.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at SNA.

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 99% of 3,357 comparable routes.

88.7% on time in its best month (April) against 81.9% 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.

Why SEA → SNA flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

SEA → SNA cancelled 102 of 12,467 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 122. The reason filed most often was the airline, 73.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 166 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Airline73.5%

Weather21.6%

Air traffic4.9%

Security0.0%

Of 102 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

The airline1 in 166

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

75 cancellations, 73.5% of the total.

Extreme weather1 in 567

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

22 cancellations, 21.6% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 2,493

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

5 cancellations, 4.9% of the total.

Security—

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.

102 coded cancellations were recorded on SEA → SNA; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

23 min late

against a median of 7 min early

Arrived an hour or more late3.3%

Typical delay when late52 min

Cancelled0.82%

Landed somewhere else0.27%

Percentiles over 12,467 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at SNA after arriving from SEA.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, SEA → SNA arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	32%	Likely to miss
45 min	14%	Some risk
60 min	7.4%	Some risk
90 min	3.2%	Low risk
120 min	1.8%	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 0.82% of the time and diverts 0.27% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 12,331 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 23 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 12,467 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

SEA → SNA flights departing 6–9 PM arrived on time 89.6% of the time, against 81.9% for 9 AM–12 PM departures, a gap of 7.7 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (SEA).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 3.5 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 1.9 points.

On-time arrival rate for SEA to SNA by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
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

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

76–79
80–83
84–87
88–91
92–95
96–99

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.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for SEA to SNA. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	87.7% on time147 flights	90.6% on time129 flights	90.2% on time132 flights	94.4% on time149 flights	89.2% on time149 flights	89.8% on time124 flights	91.4% on time129 flights
7 AM–8 AM	84.0% on time196 flights	91.0% on time191 flights	86.4% on time193 flights	85.1% on time189 flights	89.6% on time194 flights	84.1% on time186 flights	85.6% on time189 flights
8 AM–9 AM	89 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score	89 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score	90 flights, too few to score	101 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score
9 AM–10 AM	78 flights, too few to score	61 flights, too few to score	61 flights, too few to score	77 flights, too few to score	73 flights, too few to score	46 flights, too few to score	75 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	93 flights, too few to score	94 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score	98 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	93 flights, too few to score	69 flights, too few to score
11 AM–12 PM	80.3% on time153 flights	83.8% on time154 flights	82.8% on time154 flights	81.2% on time149 flights	81.4% on time146 flights	81.9% on time155 flights	82.7% on time134 flights
12 PM–1 PM	27 flights, too few to score	27 flights, too few to score	27 flights, too few to score	25 flights, too few to score	25 flights, too few to score	30 flights, too few to score	60 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	81.1% on time127 flights	90.2% on time123 flights	88.8% on time125 flights	78.3% on time121 flights	77.1% on time132 flights	107 flights, too few to score	79.1% on time130 flights
2 PM–3 PM	74 flights, too few to score	71 flights, too few to score	66 flights, too few to score	82 flights, too few to score	70 flights, too few to score	64 flights, too few to score	71 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	83.0% on time243 flights	86.5% on time246 flights	86.6% on time247 flights	78.6% on time239 flights	77.0% on time245 flights	81.3% on time159 flights	75.9% on time238 flights
4 PM–5 PM	57 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score	55 flights, too few to score	59 flights, too few to score	55 flights, too few to score	49 flights, too few to score	58 flights, too few to score
5 PM–6 PM	87.3% on time128 flights	89.3% on time122 flights	79.2% on time125 flights	78.9% on time130 flights	82.0% on time130 flights	85.4% on time178 flights	79.3% on time137 flights
6 PM–7 PM	88.7% on time143 flights	95 flights, too few to score	90 flights, too few to score	82.4% on time134 flights	86.9% on time138 flights	105 flights, too few to score	85.9% on time145 flights
7 PM–8 PM	90.3% on time314 flights	94.5% on time272 flights	90.5% on time276 flights	88.4% on time308 flights	88.1% on time314 flights	97.2% on time183 flights	88.5% on time304 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM87.9%

9 AM–12 PM81.9%

12–3 PM82.8%

3–6 PM82.4%

6–9 PM89.6%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why SEA → SNA runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

The airline56.4%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Late-arriving aircraft22.9%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Air traffic control17.6%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather3.1%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security<0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SEA → SNA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of SEA to SNA: 1.9 times the normal rate at SEA and 2.0 times at SNA. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: SEA 1.5% against 0.8%, SNA 1.9% against 1.0%. Flights that did leave SEA in bad weather arrived on time 75.4% of the time, against 79.3% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from SEA and SNA in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	SEA	SNA
Cancelled in bad weather	1.5%	1.9%
Cancelled in normal hours	0.8%	1.0%
Arrived on time, bad weather	75.4%	83.6%
Arrived on time, normal hours	79.3%	81.3%
Departures in bad weather	43,416	7,919

Of the carriers on this route, Delta Air Lines (1.1% cancelled against 1.6% for the other carriers at SEA) cancelled the fewest departures from SEA in bad weather and Alaska Airlines (1.8% cancelled against 1.2% for the other carriers at SEA) the most.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at SEA

All departures from SEA

Cancellation rates in bad weather at SEA for the airlines that fly SEA to SNA, against the other carriers at SEA in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
Delta Air Lines	9,020	1.1%below the others	1.6%
SkyWest Airlines	6,711	1.9%above the others	1.5%
Alaska Airlines	20,261	1.8%above the others	1.2%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from SEA and SNA, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from SEA on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: SEA (airlines), SNA, 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.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
Alaska Airlines	8,373	85.7%	0.96%	-7 min	2.3%
Delta Air Lines	3,452	85.1%	0.58%	-10 min	5.9%
SkyWest Airlines	642	80.4%	0.31%	-1 min	2.5%

Alaska Airlines flew 67.2% of the 12,467 flights listed.

Alaska Airlines arrived on time 5.3 percentage points more often than SkyWest Airlines on this route.

Other ways to fly Seattle to Los Angeles

Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.

Other ways to fly Seattle to Los Angeles
Route	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Score
SEA→LAX Seattle to Los Angeles	23,181	82.5%	0.76%	-6 min	79
SEA→SNA this route Seattle to Santa Ana	12,467	85.3%	0.82%	-7 min	84

SEA → SNA is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 85.3% on time, against 82.5% for SEA → LAX.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon84.9%

Tue88.8%

Wed87.2%

Thu83.5%

Fri83.9%

Sat85.7%

Sun83.4%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.4 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 6.8 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 84.6% against 84.9% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 12,467 SEA → SNA 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

SEA airport SNA airport Return direction SNA → SEA

SEA→SNA

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why SEA → SNA flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why SEA → SNA runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at SEA

Airlines on this route

Other ways to fly Seattle to Los Angeles

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology