Route profile
SFO→TUS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Francisco to Tucson, 751 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 77% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,806 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SFO → TUS arrives on time 82.2% of the time; the return trip, TUS → SFO, arrives on time 73.9% of the time, an 8.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SFO → TUS spends 27.6 minutes on the ground on a 751-mile trip: 21.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SFO and 6.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at TUS.
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 95% of 3,357 comparable routes.
86.2% on time in its best month (October) against 76.5% in its worst (February).
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.
What sets this route apart
Where SFO to TUS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SFO to TUS is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 83.2% arrive on time, 15.3 points ahead of the 67.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.7 points.
SFO to TUS struggles most at 12 PM: 72.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 8.2 points behind the 80.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.3 points.
SFO to TUS holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 84.0% on time to their 74.7%, a 9.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 9.2 points.
June is kinder to SFO to TUS than to routes of similar length: 83.9% on time against 71.8%, 12.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 11.2 points.
In February, SFO to TUS runs 5.9 points below routes of similar length, 76.5% on time to 82.4%.
SFO to TUS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 83.2% | routes of similar length | 67.9% | +15.3 pts | 713 here, 145,692 there |
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 72.1% | routes of similar length | 80.3% | −8.2 pts | 129 here, 123,539 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 84.0% | routes of similar length | 74.7% | +9.3 pts | 393 here, 317,345 there |
| Month: June | 83.9% | routes of similar length | 71.8% | +12.1 pts | 193 here, 180,154 there |
| Month: February | 76.5% | routes of similar length | 82.4% | −5.9 pts | 234 here, 150,965 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 751 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
37 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 2,806 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at TUS after arriving from SFO.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.4% | 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 0.46% of the time and diverts 0.14% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,789 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 37 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,806 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SFO → TUS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 85.8% of the time, against 78.4% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 7.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 85.8% on time from 459 flights
- 9 AM: 86.2% on time from 427 flights
- 10 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 72.1% on time from 129 flights
- 1 PM: 81.0% on time from 315 flights
- 2 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 79.9% on time from 396 flights
- 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 83.2% on time from 716 flights
- 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 72.6% on time from 191 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SFO → TUS 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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SFO → TUS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SFO → TUS, at 33.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, though departure time makes little difference here: the best and worst windows are 7 points apart.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,677 | 82.2% | 0.41% | -6 min | 6.2% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| OO5688 SkyWest Airlines | 6:25 PM | 934 | 80.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 7.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.0%
- Feb: 76.5%
- Mar: 83.5%
- Apr: 83.0%
- May: 85.4%
- Jun: 83.9%
- Jul: 77.8%
- Aug: 80.8%
- Sep: 86.1%
- Oct: 86.2%
- Nov: 82.8%
- Dec: 77.6%
February is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 9.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (61)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (62)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (60)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (62)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (59)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (70)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (86)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (78)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (67)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (80)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (47)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (54)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (56)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (60)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (67)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (89)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (84)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (91)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (86)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (83)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (75)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (60)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (74)
- November 2025: 78.3% from 120 flights
- December 2025: too few flights to score (89)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (81)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (75)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (80)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (86)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (83)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (60)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (62)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.1% against 85.8% in the 12 months before — declining by 7.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,806 SFO → TUS 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