SFO → SAN Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · SFONo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:56 UTC

San Francisco airport profile →

Destination · SANNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:51 UTC

San Diego airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

56/ 100Fair

Better than 26% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 19,949 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

71.4%

14,057 of 19,682

Cancellation rate

1.10%

220 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-1 min

Average 12.3 min

Severe delays

9.3%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

58 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

19,949

5 carriers

SFO → SAN arrives on time 71.4% of the time; the return trip, SAN → SFO, arrives on time 66.7% of the time, a 4.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

SFO → SAN spends 26.7 minutes on the ground on a 447-mile trip: 21.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SFO and 5.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at SAN.

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 99% of 2,692 comparable routes.

Alaska Airlines arrived on time 84.8% of the time, against 56.3% for Frontier 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.

Why SFO → SAN flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

SFO → SAN cancelled 220 of 19,949 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 91. The reason filed most often was the airline, 40.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 227 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Airline40.0%

Air traffic31.8%

Weather28.2%

Security0.0%

Of 220 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

The airline1 in 227

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

88 cancellations, 40.0% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 285

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

70 cancellations, 31.8% of the total.

Extreme weather1 in 322

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

62 cancellations, 28.2% 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.

220 coded cancellations were recorded on SFO → SAN; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

56 min late

against a median of 1 min early

Arrived an hour or more late9.3%

Typical delay when late58 min

Cancelled1.10%

Landed somewhere else0.24%

Percentiles over 19,949 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at SAN after arriving from SFO.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, SFO → SAN arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	47%	Likely to miss
45 min	28%	High risk
60 min	18%	High risk
90 min	9.1%	Some risk
120 min	4.8%	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 1.10% of the time and diverts 0.24% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 19,682 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 56 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 19,949 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

SFO → SAN flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.8% of the time, against 64.2% for 9 AM–12 PM departures, a gap of 23.6 percentage points.

By day and hour

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

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 10.7 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 5.9 points.

On-time arrival rate for SFO to SAN 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
8 PM–9 PM
9 PM–10 PM
10 PM–11 PM

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

40–49
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 before 6 AM (92 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for SFO to SAN. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	90.0% on time284 flights	93.2% on time193 flights	93.5% on time189 flights	89.5% on time289 flights	90.0% on time287 flights	92.1% on time219 flights	90.7% on time272 flights
7 AM–8 AM	84.6% on time183 flights	93.7% on time176 flights	94.9% on time179 flights	88.3% on time179 flights	85.9% on time179 flights	90.4% on time159 flights	84.6% on time175 flights
8 AM–9 AM	78.3% on time265 flights	89.7% on time225 flights	90.3% on time237 flights	82.6% on time261 flights	75.1% on time270 flights	87.6% on time243 flights	84.7% on time235 flights
9 AM–10 AM	76.0% on time122 flights	111 flights, too few to score	109 flights, too few to score	75.4% on time131 flights	71.4% on time120 flights	70 flights, too few to score	76.6% on time137 flights
10 AM–11 AM	49.8% on time245 flights	67.3% on time249 flights	59.5% on time223 flights	48.6% on time255 flights	43.2% on time243 flights	69.4% on time135 flights	56.3% on time214 flights
11 AM–12 PM	57.2% on time205 flights	76.6% on time216 flights	68.6% on time215 flights	64.6% on time211 flights	56.3% on time209 flights	71.0% on time172 flights	67.3% on time202 flights
12 PM–1 PM	97 flights, too few to score	60 flights, too few to score	75 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	69.0% on time255 flights	82.7% on time197 flights	78.3% on time190 flights	68.8% on time241 flights	65.7% on time253 flights	76.2% on time173 flights	71.6% on time235 flights
2 PM–3 PM	118 flights, too few to score	77.7% on time139 flights	63.3% on time140 flights	112 flights, too few to score	116 flights, too few to score	85 flights, too few to score	117 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	110 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score	117 flights, too few to score	119 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score	36 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	63.5% on time281 flights	80.2% on time267 flights	72.8% on time253 flights	60.1% on time284 flights	57.5% on time290 flights	77.0% on time253 flights	62.2% on time263 flights
5 PM–6 PM	117 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	103 flights, too few to score	98 flights, too few to score	112 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score	101 flights, too few to score
6 PM–7 PM	53.0% on time169 flights	73.4% on time159 flights	68.3% on time164 flights	56.4% on time171 flights	57.2% on time173 flights	119 flights, too few to score	57.6% on time162 flights
7 PM–8 PM	63.2% on time253 flights	79.3% on time231 flights	74.3% on time210 flights	58.5% on time251 flights	57.4% on time247 flights	78.3% on time205 flights	57.4% on time239 flights
8 PM–9 PM	67.4% on time130 flights	84 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score	55.9% on time121 flights	62.5% on time123 flights	51 flights, too few to score	111 flights, too few to score
9 PM–10 PM	108 flights, too few to score	47 flights, too few to score	73 flights, too few to score	64.5% on time125 flights	72.1% on time125 flights	57 flights, too few to score	54.1% on time148 flights
10 PM–11 PM	78.4% on time130 flights	83.3% on time121 flights	82.4% on time128 flights	76.7% on time136 flights	73.7% on time137 flights	114 flights, too few to score	72.7% on time135 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM87.8%

9 AM–12 PM64.2%

12–3 PM68.0%

3–6 PM64.9%

6–9 PM65.0%

9 PM–5 AM73.4%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why SFO → SAN runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft51.3%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Air traffic control27.6%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

The airline18.3%

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

Weather2.8%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

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

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SFO → SAN, 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 87.8% of the time and 9 AM–12 PM departures 64.2%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

The harder-hit end is SAN, where the flight lands. Its figure counts departures from SAN, so it says more about how that airport copes than about this route. Bad weather cancels 3.5 times the normal rate at SAN against 1.7 times at SFO. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: SFO 1.5% against 0.9%, SAN 3.5% against 1.0%. Flights that did leave SAN in bad weather arrived on time 66.7% of the time, against 78.4% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from SFO and SAN in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	SFO	SAN
Cancelled in bad weather	1.5%	3.5%
Cancelled in normal hours	0.9%	1.0%
Arrived on time, bad weather	73.0%	66.7%
Arrived on time, normal hours	79.8%	78.4%
Departures in bad weather	36,006	19,707

Of the carriers on this route, United Airlines (1.0% cancelled against 1.9% for the other carriers at SFO) cancelled the fewest departures from SFO in bad weather and SkyWest Airlines (3.0% cancelled against 1.2% for the other carriers at SFO) the most.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at SFO

All departures from SFO

Cancellation rates in bad weather at SFO for the airlines that fly SFO to SAN, against the other carriers at SFO in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
United Airlines	13,903	1.0%below the others	1.9%
Southwest Airlines	2,224	1.1%about level	1.5%
Frontier Airlines	1,057	1.8%about level	1.5%
Alaska Airlines	3,124	1.8%about level	1.4%
SkyWest Airlines	7,724	3.0%above the others	1.2%

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

Weather source and limits. In full: SFO (airlines), SAN, 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
United Airlines	7,350	80.2%	0.95%	-6 min	6.1%
SkyWest Airlines	5,770	70.0%	1.28%	1 min	9.6%
Southwest Airlines	5,214	60.4%	0.90%	6 min	13.3%
Alaska Airlines	895	84.8%	0.56%	-5 min	3.8%
Frontier Airlines	720	56.3%	3.33%	10 min	17.5%

United Airlines flew 36.8% of the 19,949 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 3.33% of its flights here against 0.56% for Alaska Airlines.

Alaska Airlines arrived on time 28.5 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.

Other ways to fly San Francisco to San Diego

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

Other ways to fly San Francisco to San Diego
Route	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Score
SFO→SAN this route San Francisco to San Diego	19,949	71.4%	1.10%	-1 min	56
SJC→SAN San Jose to San Diego	16,846	76.5%	0.95%	-2 min	69
OAK→SAN Oakland to San Diego	10,555	74.6%	1.16%	-1 min	64

SJC → SAN is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 76.5% on time, against 71.4% for SFO → SAN.

Flying to SAN from the San Francisco area? Compare SFO, SJC, OAK for SAN, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon68.1%

Tue80.7%

Wed75.0%

Thu67.2%

Fri64.3%

Sat79.8%

Sun68.4%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 16.4 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

June is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 15.2 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 64.9% against 73.8% in the 12 months before — declining by 8.9 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 19,949 SFO → SAN 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

SFO airport SAN airport Return direction SAN → SFO

SFO→SAN

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why SFO → SAN 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 SFO → SAN 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 SFO

Airlines on this route

Other ways to fly San Francisco to San Diego

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology