Route profile
SFO→BWI
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Francisco to Baltimore, 2,457 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 93% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,291 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SFO → BWI arrives on time 83.4% of the time; the return trip, BWI → SFO, arrives on time 77.1% of the time, a 6.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair. SFO → BWI also cancels 0.65% of flights, against 1.66% for BWI → SFO.
SFO → BWI spends 28.7 minutes on the ground on a 2,457-mile trip: 23.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SFO and 5.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at BWI.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 97% of 2,692 comparable routes.
United Airlines arrived on time 87.6% of the time, against 64.9% for Southwest Airlines, flying the exact same route.
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 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SFO to BWI differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SFO to BWI is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 AM: 93.0% arrive on time, 9.6 points ahead of the 83.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
SFO to BWI struggles most at 9 PM: 71.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 7.3 points behind the 78.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
SFO to BWI holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 86.6% on time to their 78.7%, a 7.9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.5 points.
January is kinder to SFO to BWI than to routes of similar length: 92.3% on time against 80.1%, 12.2 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 13.2 points.
United Airlines does better on SFO to BWI than on its routes of similar length: 87.6% on time here, 80.9% there, 6.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
SFO to BWI against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 93.0% | routes of similar length | 83.4% | +9.6 pts | 185 here, 102,136 there |
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 71.6% | routes of similar length | 78.9% | −7.3 pts | 612 here, 56,134 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 86.6% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | +7.9 pts | 307 here, 138,462 there |
| Month: January | 92.3% | routes of similar length | 80.1% | +12.2 pts | 142 here, 72,348 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 87.6% | routes of similar length | 80.9% | +6.7 pts | 1,849 here, 224,440 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 2,457 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
26 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 2,291 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BWI after arriving from SFO.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 8.5% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.2% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 1.5% | 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 0.65% of the time and diverts 0.35% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,268 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 26 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,291 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SFO → BWI flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.0% of the time, against 80.4% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 12.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 93.0% on time from 186 flights
- 9 AM: 87.1% on time from 657 flights
- 10 AM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 71.6% on time from 616 flights
- 10 PM: 86.2% on time from 394 flights
- 11 PM: 88.8% on time from 385 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SFO → BWI 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SFO → BWI. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SFO → BWI, at 56.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.0% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 80.4%.
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 | 1,869 | 87.6% | 0.64% | -10 min | 1.9% |
| Southwest Airlines | 422 | 64.9% | 0.71% | 3 min | 8.8% |
United Airlines flew 81.6% of the 2,291 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 22.7 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.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA2664 United Airlines | 9:10 AM | 650 | 88.9% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 6.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 92.3%
- Feb: 85.8%
- Mar: 89.0%
- Apr: 84.8%
- May: 81.1%
- Jun: 74.9%
- Jul: 78.7%
- Aug: 82.4%
- Sep: 81.9%
- Oct: 90.1%
- Nov: 85.8%
- Dec: 81.5%
June is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 17.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.0% against 83.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,291 SFO → BWI 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