Route profile
SNA→OAK
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Santa Ana to Oakland, 371 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 7,977 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SNA → OAK arrives on time 85.5% of the time; the return trip, OAK → SNA, arrives on time 86.5% of the time.
SNA → OAK spends 17.6 minutes on the ground on a 371-mile trip: 11.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SNA and 5.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at OAK.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where SNA to OAK differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SNA to OAK is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 83.3% arrive on time, 13.5 points ahead of the 69.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.5 points.
SNA to OAK holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 88.0% on time to their 78.0%, a 10 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.8 points.
March is kinder to SNA to OAK than to routes of similar length: 90.0% on time against 79.0%, 11 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 12.1 points.
Spirit Airlines does better on SNA to OAK than on its routes of similar length: 89.6% on time here, 77.3% there, 12.3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 14.4 points.
SNA to OAK against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 83.3% | routes of similar length | 69.8% | +13.5 pts | 366 here, 92,052 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 88.0% | routes of similar length | 78.0% | +10.0 pts | 1,319 here, 231,374 there |
| Month: March | 90.0% | routes of similar length | 79.0% | +11.0 pts | 658 here, 123,509 there |
| Airline: Spirit Airlines | 89.6% | routes of similar length | 77.3% | +12.3 pts | 742 here, 33,426 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 371 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.
Why SNA → OAK flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SNA → OAK cancelled 71 of 7,977 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 112. The reason filed most often was the airline, 54.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 205 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 71 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
39 cancellations, 54.9% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
23 cancellations, 32.4% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
9 cancellations, 12.7% of the total.
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. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
71 coded cancellations were recorded on SNA → OAK; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
25 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 7,977 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at OAK after arriving from SNA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 28% | High risk |
| 45 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.2% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.3% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 1.9% | 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 0.89% of the time and diverts 0.00% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,906 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 25 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,977 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SNA → OAK flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 97.4% of the time, against 78.4% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 19.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 98.7% on time from 308 flights
- 7 AM: 97.2% on time from 677 flights
- 8 AM: 96.9% on time from 518 flights
- 9 AM: 92.7% on time from 536 flights
- 10 AM: 91.2% on time from 805 flights
- 11 AM: 87.8% on time from 620 flights
- 12 PM: 83.4% on time from 451 flights
- 1 PM: 84.0% on time from 447 flights
- 2 PM: 75.7% on time from 464 flights
- 3 PM: 80.1% on time from 433 flights
- 4 PM: 75.7% on time from 513 flights
- 5 PM: 81.3% on time from 509 flights
- 6 PM: 74.0% on time from 632 flights
- 7 PM: 83.3% on time from 374 flights
- 8 PM: 80.0% on time from 634 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SNA → OAK 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 SNA → OAK. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SNA → OAK, at 69.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 97.4% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 78.4%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 7,231 | 85.1% | 0.93% | -8 min | 3.4% |
| Spirit Airlines | 746 | 89.6% | 0.54% | -9 min | 3.8% |
Southwest Airlines flew 90.6% of the 7,977 flights listed.
Spirit Airlines arrived on time 4.5 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Los Angeles to San Francisco
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAX→SFO Los Angeles to San Francisco | 34,819 | 69.3% | 0.67% | -1 min | 55 |
| LAX→SJC Los Angeles to San Jose | 15,597 | 86.5% | 0.35% | -9 min | 87 |
| SNA→SFO Santa Ana to San Francisco | 13,797 | 71.6% | 1.26% | -3 min | 54 |
| SNA→OAK this route Santa Ana to Oakland | 7,977 | 85.5% | 0.89% | -8 min | 84 |
LAX → SJC is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 86.5% on time, against 71.6% for SNA → SFO.
Flying to OAK from the Los Angeles area? Compare SNA, LAX, BUR, ONT for OAK, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 11.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.4%
- Feb: 88.7%
- Mar: 90.0%
- Apr: 87.7%
- May: 85.7%
- Jun: 77.6%
- Jul: 80.6%
- Aug: 84.0%
- Sep: 89.1%
- Oct: 86.2%
- Nov: 89.1%
- Dec: 84.2%
June is historically the weakest month and March the strongest, a spread of 12.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 80.9% from 237 flights
- August 2023: 83.3% from 235 flights
- September 2023: 85.5% from 228 flights
- October 2023: 82.5% from 207 flights
- November 2023: 86.8% from 235 flights
- December 2023: 85.3% from 249 flights
- January 2024: 80.1% from 211 flights
- February 2024: 84.4% from 183 flights
- March 2024: 90.1% from 223 flights
- April 2024: 87.6% from 217 flights
- May 2024: 86.5% from 223 flights
- June 2024: 84.3% from 219 flights
- July 2024: 81.5% from 224 flights
- August 2024: 83.5% from 244 flights
- September 2024: 90.9% from 222 flights
- October 2024: 91.9% from 223 flights
- November 2024: 95.3% from 232 flights
- December 2024: 84.0% from 244 flights
- January 2025: 89.4% from 203 flights
- February 2025: 93.9% from 200 flights
- March 2025: 90.5% from 234 flights
- April 2025: 89.2% from 222 flights
- May 2025: 85.4% from 255 flights
- June 2025: 76.7% from 236 flights
- July 2025: 78.1% from 219 flights
- August 2025: 85.3% from 206 flights
- September 2025: 91.1% from 193 flights
- October 2025: 83.8% from 197 flights
- November 2025: 84.5% from 198 flights
- December 2025: 83.1% from 197 flights
- January 2026: 90.9% from 165 flights
- February 2026: 87.2% from 172 flights
- March 2026: 89.2% from 207 flights
- April 2026: 86.0% from 194 flights
- May 2026: 85.1% from 201 flights
- June 2026: 71.4% from 204 flights
- July 2026: 81.7% from 218 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 84.8% against 87.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,977 SNA → OAK 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