SFO → SNA Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · SFONo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:56 UTC

San Francisco 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

72/ 100Good

Better than 67% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 13,715 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

80.2%

10,858 of 13,539

Cancellation rate

1.13%

155 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-6 min

Average 4.8 min

Severe delays

5.8%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

56 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

13,715

4 carriers

SFO → SNA arrives on time 80.2% of the time; the return trip, SNA → SFO, arrives on time 71.6% of the time, an 8.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

SFO → SNA spends 27.1 minutes on the ground on a 372-mile trip: 19.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SFO and 7.4 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 94% of 3,357 comparable routes.

86.2% on time in its best month (August) against 76.3% in its worst (April).

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 SFO → SNA flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

SFO → SNA cancelled 155 of 13,715 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 88. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 47.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 185 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Air traffic47.7%

Weather32.3%

Airline20.0%

Security0.0%

Of 155 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

The air traffic system1 in 185

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

74 cancellations, 47.7% of the total.

Extreme weather1 in 274

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

50 cancellations, 32.3% of the total.

The airline1 in 442

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

31 cancellations, 20.0% 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.

155 coded cancellations were recorded on SFO → SNA; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

39 min late

against a median of 6 min early

Arrived an hour or more late5.8%

Typical delay when late56 min

Cancelled1.13%

Landed somewhere else0.15%

Percentiles over 13,715 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at SNA after arriving from SFO.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, SFO → SNA arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	36%	Likely to miss
45 min	19%	High risk
60 min	12%	Some risk
90 min	5.7%	Some risk
120 min	2.9%	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 1.13% of the time and diverts 0.15% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 13,539 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 39 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 13,715 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

SFO → SNA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.4% of the time, against 74.9% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 15.5 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 6.1 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 3.6 points.

On-time arrival rate for SFO to SNA by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
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

65–69
70–74
75–79
80–84
85–89
90–94
95–99

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 7 AM and after 8 PM (1,015 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 SNA. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
7 AM–8 AM	89.6% on time155 flights	91.2% on time151 flights	92.8% on time153 flights	92.1% on time153 flights	90.5% on time149 flights	93.6% on time142 flights	89.6% on time125 flights
8 AM–9 AM	89.0% on time147 flights	86.6% on time134 flights	96.2% on time131 flights	90.0% on time140 flights	84.6% on time144 flights	89.7% on time136 flights	111 flights, too few to score
9 AM–10 AM	77.3% on time164 flights	86.9% on time160 flights	88.5% on time158 flights	82.7% on time165 flights	80.9% on time162 flights	81.9% on time166 flights	77.0% on time150 flights
10 AM–11 AM	73.7% on time210 flights	82.8% on time203 flights	84.4% on time200 flights	77.8% on time212 flights	73.3% on time210 flights	82.0% on time205 flights	74.3% on time227 flights
11 AM–12 PM	105 flights, too few to score	93 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	99 flights, too few to score	88 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score	105 flights, too few to score	88 flights, too few to score	101 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	75.8% on time224 flights	85.7% on time210 flights	77.8% on time206 flights	77.5% on time232 flights	74.4% on time224 flights	86.7% on time198 flights	72.6% on time232 flights
2 PM–3 PM	79 flights, too few to score	65 flights, too few to score	66 flights, too few to score	82 flights, too few to score	83 flights, too few to score	71 flights, too few to score	77 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	66.4% on time124 flights	99 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score	73.8% on time125 flights	100 flights, too few to score	71.9% on time123 flights
4 PM–5 PM	72.0% on time188 flights	79.5% on time168 flights	75.4% on time168 flights	72.0% on time178 flights	71.4% on time187 flights	83.4% on time176 flights	66.1% on time184 flights
5 PM–6 PM	75.2% on time129 flights	105 flights, too few to score	109 flights, too few to score	68.5% on time126 flights	79.8% on time122 flights	97 flights, too few to score	67.5% on time124 flights
6 PM–7 PM	110 flights, too few to score	94 flights, too few to score	103 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	67 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score
7 PM–8 PM	91.3% on time184 flights	91.2% on time172 flights	87.0% on time178 flights	79.1% on time173 flights	80.0% on time178 flights	119 flights, too few to score	88.7% on time179 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM90.4%

9 AM–12 PM78.7%

12–3 PM76.1%

3–6 PM74.9%

6–9 PM83.2%

9 PM–5 AM—

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.

Why SFO → SNA runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft44.7%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Air traffic control26.6%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

The airline25.2%

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

Weather3.5%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

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

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SFO → SNA, at 44.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.4% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 74.9%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of SFO to SNA: 1.7 times the normal rate at SFO and 2.0 times at SNA. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: SFO 1.5% against 0.9%, SNA 1.9% against 1.0%. Flights that did leave SFO in bad weather arrived on time 73.0% of the time, against 79.8% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from SFO and SNA in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	SFO	SNA
Cancelled in bad weather	1.5%	1.9%
Cancelled in normal hours	0.9%	1.0%
Arrived on time, bad weather	73.0%	83.6%
Arrived on time, normal hours	79.8%	81.3%
Departures in bad weather	36,006	7,919

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 SNA, 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%
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 SNA, 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), 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
SkyWest Airlines	10,033	79.7%	1.33%	-5 min	5.9%
United Airlines	2,975	83.6%	0.40%	-8 min	4.5%
Frontier Airlines	403	69.5%	2.23%	-2 min	12.7%
Alaska Airlines	304	77.9%	0.33%	-3 min	6.3%

SkyWest Airlines flew 73.2% of the 13,715 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.23% of its flights here against 0.33% for Alaska Airlines.

United Airlines arrived on time 14.1 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.

Other ways to fly San Francisco to Los Angeles

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

Other ways to fly San Francisco to Los Angeles
Route	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Score
SFO→LAX San Francisco to Los Angeles	34,804	77.1%	0.70%	-5 min	67
SJC→LAX San Jose to Los Angeles	15,614	86.7%	0.37%	-10 min	88
SFO→SNA this route San Francisco to Santa Ana	13,715	80.2%	1.13%	-6 min	72

SJC → LAX is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 86.7% on time, against 77.1% for SFO → LAX.

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

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
OO5440 SkyWest Airlines	1:30 PM	919	79.2%
OO3494 SkyWest Airlines	3:42 PM	667	76.2%

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon77.7%

Tue85.6%

Wed82.9%

Thu78.6%

Fri77.1%

Sat84.5%

Sun75.9%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.7 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

April is historically the weakest month and August the strongest, a spread of 9.9 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 79.0% against 81.4% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.4 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 13,715 SFO → 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

SFO airport SNA airport Return direction SNA → SFO

SFO→SNA

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why SFO → 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 SFO → 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 SFO

Airlines on this route

Other ways to fly San Francisco to Los Angeles

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology