SNA → SFO Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · SNANo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 09:53 UTC

Santa Ana airport profile →

Destination · SFONo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 09:56 UTC

San Francisco airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

54/ 100Fair

Better than 22% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 13,797 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

71.6%

9,699 of 13,553

Cancellation rate

1.26%

174 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-3 min

Average 11.6 min

Severe delays

9.7%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

64 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

13,797

4 carriers

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

SNA → SFO spends 27.8 minutes on the ground on a 372-mile trip: 20.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SNA and 7.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at SFO.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

What stands out

Which day you fly matters unusually much here, a wider weekday spread than 98% of 4,467 comparable routes.

79.7% on time on a typical Saturday, against 62.3% on a Sunday.

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.

Why SNA → SFO flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

SNA → SFO cancelled 174 of 13,797 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 79. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 46.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 172 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Air traffic46.0%

Weather31.0%

Airline23.0%

Security0.0%

Of 174 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

The air traffic system1 in 172

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

80 cancellations, 46.0% of the total.

Extreme weather1 in 256

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

54 cancellations, 31.0% of the total.

The airline1 in 345

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

40 cancellations, 23.0% 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.

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

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

58 min late

against a median of 3 min early

Arrived an hour or more late9.7%

Typical delay when late64 min

Cancelled1.26%

Landed somewhere else0.51%

SNA → SFO has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 3 min early, but the worst tenth are 61 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.

Percentiles over 13,797 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at SFO after arriving from SNA.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, SNA → SFO arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	44%	Likely to miss
45 min	28%	High risk
60 min	19%	High risk
90 min	9.5%	Some risk
120 min	5.0%	Some 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 1.26% of the time and diverts 0.51% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 13,553 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 58 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 13,797 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

SNA → SFO flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 80.4% of the time, against 64.3% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 16.1 percentage points.

By day and hour

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

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 8.7 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 5.5 points.

On-time arrival rate for SNA to SFO 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

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 after 8 PM (840 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 SNA to SFO. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	94.8% on time143 flights	91.5% on time136 flights	93.2% on time135 flights	90.8% on time143 flights	95.1% on time143 flights	94.0% on time140 flights	0 flights, too few to score
7 AM–8 AM	76.3% on time210 flights	84.9% on time204 flights	83.4% on time204 flights	84.5% on time209 flights	83.6% on time207 flights	84.2% on time198 flights	40.9% on time165 flights
8 AM–9 AM	52 flights, too few to score	46 flights, too few to score	47 flights, too few to score	49 flights, too few to score	52 flights, too few to score	50 flights, too few to score	53.5% on time127 flights
9 AM–10 AM	118 flights, too few to score	117 flights, too few to score	61.0% on time120 flights	56.4% on time120 flights	116 flights, too few to score	71.0% on time127 flights	67.7% on time129 flights
10 AM–11 AM	69.9% on time163 flights	75.8% on time158 flights	78.7% on time157 flights	71.8% on time164 flights	69.1% on time166 flights	82.2% on time147 flights	72.6% on time125 flights
11 AM–12 PM	64.1% on time145 flights	71.4% on time147 flights	74.8% on time145 flights	70.7% on time151 flights	68.1% on time142 flights	75.3% on time152 flights	67.6% on time142 flights
12 PM–1 PM	68 flights, too few to score	46 flights, too few to score	46 flights, too few to score	74 flights, too few to score	79 flights, too few to score	47 flights, too few to score	70 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	65.8% on time150 flights	115 flights, too few to score	111 flights, too few to score	57.6% on time144 flights	62.4% on time141 flights	111 flights, too few to score	62.3% on time147 flights
2 PM–3 PM	106 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score	93 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	75.0% on time157 flights	88.4% on time146 flights	79.0% on time159 flights	74.7% on time153 flights	76.2% on time154 flights	83.0% on time136 flights	77.3% on time151 flights
4 PM–5 PM	69.3% on time153 flights	81.7% on time154 flights	73.4% on time156 flights	66.9% on time163 flights	68.2% on time158 flights	85.9% on time136 flights	70.6% on time161 flights
5 PM–6 PM	113 flights, too few to score	103 flights, too few to score	103 flights, too few to score	109 flights, too few to score	111 flights, too few to score	83.2% on time120 flights	108 flights, too few to score
6 PM–7 PM	65.7% on time179 flights	78.1% on time158 flights	70.9% on time159 flights	66.7% on time176 flights	70.8% on time182 flights	76.1% on time158 flights	59.4% on time187 flights
7 PM–8 PM	56.0% on time196 flights	67.4% on time144 flights	56.8% on time147 flights	56.1% on time184 flights	60.3% on time196 flights	80.1% on time138 flights	52.5% on time179 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM80.4%

9 AM–12 PM69.6%

12–3 PM64.3%

3–6 PM76.7%

6–9 PM65.9%

9 PM–5 AM71.7%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why SNA → SFO runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Air traffic control49.9%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Late-arriving aircraft27.3%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline18.5%

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

Weather4.2%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security<0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

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

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of SNA to SFO: 2.0 times the normal rate at SNA and 1.7 times at SFO. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: SNA 1.9% against 1.0%, SFO 1.5% against 0.9%. 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 SNA and SFO in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	SNA	SFO
Cancelled in bad weather	1.9%	1.5%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.0%	0.9%
Arrived on time, bad weather	83.6%	73.0%
Arrived on time, normal hours	81.3%	79.8%
Departures in bad weather	7,919	36,006

SkyWest Airlines (4.1% cancelled against 1.9% for the other carriers at SNA) cancelled more departures from SNA in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly better. One more carrier flies this route but has too few bad-weather departures from SNA to compare.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at SNA

All departures from SNA

Cancellation rates in bad weather at SNA for the airlines that fly SNA to SFO, against the other carriers at SNA in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
United Airlines	1,260	1.4%about level	2.2%
Alaska Airlines	797	2.5%about level	1.9%
SkyWest Airlines	613	4.1%above the others	1.9%

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

Weather source and limits. In full: SNA (airlines), SFO, 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	10,112	71.1%	1.40%	-3 min	9.9%
United Airlines	2,975	73.6%	0.71%	-5 min	8.4%
Frontier Airlines	405	66.2%	1.98%	-2 min	14.6%
Alaska Airlines	305	75.1%	0.98%	-4 min	8.3%

SkyWest Airlines flew 73.3% of the 13,797 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 1.98% of its flights here against 0.71% for United Airlines.

Alaska Airlines arrived on time 8.9 percentage points more often than Frontier 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.

Other ways to fly Los Angeles to San Francisco
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 this route Santa Ana to San Francisco	13,797	71.6%	1.26%	-3 min	54

LAX → SJC is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 86.5% on time, against 71.6% for SNA → SFO.

Flying to SFO from the Los Angeles area? Compare SNA, LAX, BUR, ONT for SFO, 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
OO3440 SkyWest Airlines	9:25 AM	664	62.1%

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon68.4%

Tue78.3%

Wed73.9%

Thu69.3%

Fri70.0%

Sat79.7%

Sun62.3%

Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 17.4 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 24.7 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 67.5% against 77.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 9.7 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 13,797 SNA → SFO 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

SNA airport SFO airport Return direction SFO → SNA

SNA→SFO

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why SNA → SFO 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 SNA → SFO 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 SNA

Airlines on this route

Other ways to fly Los Angeles to San Francisco

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology