Route profile
SFO→CLE
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Francisco to Cleveland, 2,161 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 86% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,755 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SFO → CLE arrives on time 85.5% of the time; the return trip, CLE → SFO, arrives on time 87.1% of the time.
SFO → CLE spends 31.0 minutes on the ground on a 2,161-mile trip: 24.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SFO and 6.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLE.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 98% of 4,467 comparable routes.
87.3% on time on the best day (Tuesday) against 84.0% on the worst (Wednesday).
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.
What sets this route apart
Where SFO to CLE differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SFO to CLE is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 AM: 92.5% arrive on time, 10.9 points ahead of the 81.6% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.2 points.
SFO to CLE struggles most at 11 PM: 73.2% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 7.8 points behind the 81.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
SFO to CLE holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 85.3% on time to their 76.3%, a 9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.5 points.
June is kinder to SFO to CLE than to routes of similar length: 85.1% on time against 74.3%, 10.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 12.4 points.
United Airlines does better on SFO to CLE than on its routes of similar length: 86.2% on time here, 81.5% there, 4.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
SFO to CLE against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 92.5% | routes of similar length | 81.6% | +10.9 pts | 147 here, 78,097 there |
| Hour: 11 PM departures | 73.2% | routes of similar length | 81.0% | −7.8 pts | 138 here, 65,514 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 85.3% | routes of similar length | 76.3% | +9.0 pts | 259 here, 164,504 there |
| Month: June | 85.1% | routes of similar length | 74.3% | +10.8 pts | 148 here, 99,407 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 86.2% | routes of similar length | 81.5% | +4.7 pts | 1,707 here, 235,169 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 2,161 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
27 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 1,755 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLE after arriving from SFO.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 28% | High risk |
| 45 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 9.2% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.3% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.6% | 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 1.20% of the time and diverts 0.23% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,730 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 27 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,755 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SFO → CLE flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.9% of the time, against 80.4% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 13.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 92.5% on time from 147 flights
- 10 AM: 85.3% on time from 395 flights
- 11 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 87.4% on time from 121 flights
- 2 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 85.9% on time from 221 flights
- 10 PM: 86.8% on time from 390 flights
- 11 PM: 73.2% on time from 138 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SFO → CLE 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 → CLE. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SFO → CLE, at 51.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.9% of the time and 12–3 PM 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 | 1,729 | 86.2% | 1.04% | -9 min | 3.9% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Wednesday the least, a gap of 3.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 84.7% against 91.0% in the 12 months before — declining by 6.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,755 SFO → CLE 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