San Diego International Airport (SAN) delays & on-time performance
San Diego, California · 73 nonstop destinations · 11 airlines · Aug 2025 – Jul 2026
- SAN: Airport closed. Closed, expected to reopen Oct 11 at 13:00 UTC.
On-time arrivals
77%
arrived < 15 min late
Cancelled
1.3%
1,255 flights
Avg arrival delay
15 min
61 min when late
Departed on time
74%
avg taxi-out 21 min
Figures cover 100,196 departures from SAN; on-time is measured at arrival. Arrivals into SAN were on time 74% of the time.
Key facts
- Flights departing San Diego International Airport (SAN) arrived on time 77% of the time in Aug 2025 – Jul 2026, worse than the 78% national average.
- 1.3% were cancelled, and 7% arrived an hour or more late.
- Delta Air Lines was the most punctual airline here (87% on time); Southwest Airlines was the least (72%).
- Departures scheduled around 6am did best (91% on time); around 4pm did worst (67%).
- The largest source of delay minutes was late-arriving aircraft (48%).
Most delayed routes from SAN
Lowest on-time arrival rates among regularly flown routes.
- SFO · San Francisco62%6,660 flts
- DAL · Dallas68%1,571 flts
- DCA · Washington70%364 flts
- SAT · San Antonio70%610 flts
- MCI · Kansas City71%385 flts
- HOU · Houston71%962 flts
- AUS · Austin72%2,577 flts
- ELP · El Paso72%361 flts
- HNL · Honolulu73%1,773 flts
- BNA · Nashville74%1,092 flts
Most reliable routes from SAN
Highest on-time arrival rates among regularly flown routes.
- LAX · Los Angeles89%2,447 flts
- MSP · Minneapolis89%1,303 flts
- IAD · Washington88%1,402 flts
- PHL · Philadelphia88%1,046 flts
- ATL · Atlanta86%2,378 flts
- DTW · Detroit85%1,290 flts
- IAH · Houston84%1,696 flts
- SLC · Salt Lake City84%3,011 flts
- MIA · Miami84%649 flts
- OGG · Kahului84%876 flts
Best airline at SAN
Departures from this airport, ranked by on-time arrival.
| Airline | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Routes | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allegiant Air | 87% | 0.0% | 16 min | 4 | 23 |
| Delta Air Lines | 87% | 1.1% | 11 min | 7 | 9,564 |
| Spirit Airlines | 84% | 1.5% | 12 min | 5 | 261 |
| United Airlines | 81% | 0.7% | 14 min | 7 | 10,567 |
| JetBlue | 81% | 2.7% | 20 min | 2 | 1,644 |
| American Airlines | 80% | 1.8% | 21 min | 6 | 9,359 |
| SkyWest Airlines | 79% | 1.9% | 13 min | 28 | 14,881 |
| Alaska Airlines | 79% | 1.3% | 13 min | 27 | 13,044 |
| Southwest Airlines | 72% | 0.9% | 15 min | 41 | 38,266 |
| Frontier Airlines | 72% | 1.9% | 24 min | 8 | 2,184 |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 65% | 1.7% | 28 min | 1 | 403 |
Best time to fly out of SAN
On-time arrival rate by scheduled departure hour (local time).
- 6am91%9,294 flts
- 7am86%6,134 flts
- 8am85%8,500 flts
- 9am81%6,380 flts
- 10am81%6,768 flts
- 11am79%5,948 flts
- 12pm74%6,452 flts
- 1pm70%6,971 flts
- 2pm69%5,126 flts
- 3pm71%4,818 flts
- 4pm67%5,013 flts
- 5pm73%5,749 flts
- 6pm69%4,446 flts
- 7pm68%4,763 flts
- 8pm69%4,531 flts
- 9pm76%5,020 flts
- 10pm87%4,283 flts
Monthly trend
Why departures were late
- Late-arriving aircraft48%
- Airline (crew, maintenance, cleaning, fueling)27%
- Air traffic control & airport congestion21%
- Extreme weather4%
- Security0%
Data: U.S. DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Aug 2025 – Jul 2026 (12 months). Latest month published by BTS: July 2026. How we calculate this.