San Francisco International Airport (SFO) delays & on-time performance
San Francisco, California · 84 nonstop destinations · 10 airlines · Aug 2025 – Jul 2026
No FAA-reported ground stops or delays at SFO right now. Individual flights can still be delayed by the airline; check with your airline for your flight.
On-time arrivals
77%
arrived < 15 min late
Cancelled
1.0%
1,471 flights
Avg arrival delay
17 min
68 min when late
Departed on time
76%
avg taxi-out 22 min
Figures cover 147,566 departures from SFO; on-time is measured at arrival. Arrivals into SFO were on time 68% of the time.
Key facts
- Flights departing San Francisco International Airport (SFO) arrived on time 77% of the time in Aug 2025 – Jul 2026, worse than the 78% national average.
- 1% were cancelled, and 8% arrived an hour or more late.
- United Airlines was the most punctual airline here (81% on time); Southwest Airlines was the least (57%).
- Departures scheduled around 5am did best (95% on time); around 3pm did worst (67%).
- The largest source of delay minutes was late-arriving aircraft (45%).
Most delayed routes from SFO
Lowest on-time arrival rates among regularly flown routes.
- STL · St. Louis64%760 flts
- SAN · San Diego65%6,621 flts
- MCI · Kansas City69%365 flts
- ASE · Aspen69%378 flts
- BFL · Bakersfield70%581 flts
- OMA · Omaha71%369 flts
- RDD · Redding73%877 flts
- LAS · Las Vegas73%6,118 flts
- LAX · Los Angeles73%11,235 flts
- MDW · Chicago73%485 flts
Most reliable routes from SFO
Highest on-time arrival rates among regularly flown routes.
- RDU · Raleigh/Durham90%887 flts
- LIH · Lihue89%897 flts
- PIT · Pittsburgh89%555 flts
- OGG · Kahului88%1,702 flts
- KOA · Kona87%1,151 flts
- MCO · Orlando86%1,407 flts
- PHL · Philadelphia85%2,044 flts
- CLE · Cleveland85%578 flts
- TPA · Tampa85%700 flts
- CLT · Charlotte85%1,499 flts
Best airline at SFO
Departures from this airport, ranked by on-time arrival.
| Airline | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Routes | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 81% | 0.5% | 12 min | 63 | 61,465 |
| Delta Air Lines | 77% | 1.3% | 16 min | 9 | 13,902 |
| JetBlue | 77% | 1.8% | 19 min | 4 | 4,449 |
| American Airlines | 77% | 1.9% | 24 min | 9 | 11,902 |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 76% | 1.9% | 19 min | 2 | 423 |
| Alaska Airlines | 76% | 1.0% | 14 min | 20 | 10,524 |
| SkyWest Airlines | 75% | 1.3% | 19 min | 47 | 31,692 |
| Frontier Airlines | 64% | 2.2% | 29 min | 13 | 3,494 |
| Southwest Airlines | 57% | 0.9% | 27 min | 15 | 9,714 |
| Envoy Air | 0% | 0.0% | 35 min | 1 | 1 |
Best time to fly out of SFO
On-time arrival rate by scheduled departure hour (local time).
- 5am95%3,626 flts
- 6am92%6,616 flts
- 7am91%8,340 flts
- 8am85%12,812 flts
- 9am83%8,865 flts
- 10am71%12,389 flts
- 11am70%8,018 flts
- 12pm68%8,321 flts
- 1pm72%10,411 flts
- 2pm67%5,942 flts
- 3pm67%4,225 flts
- 4pm73%13,367 flts
- 5pm71%3,291 flts
- 6pm78%8,253 flts
- 7pm76%5,085 flts
- 8pm70%4,608 flts
- 9pm75%8,401 flts
- 10pm74%7,388 flts
- 11pm77%6,400 flts
Monthly trend
Why departures were late
- Late-arriving aircraft45%
- Airline (crew, maintenance, cleaning, fueling)29%
- Air traffic control & airport congestion22%
- Extreme weather3%
- 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.