San Diego International in December 2023

86.0%departed on time

BTS: A flight is counted as on time if it arrived less than 15 minutes after its scheduled time. Only carriers with at least 0.5 percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenue report.

In December 2023, reporting carriers scheduled 7,848 domestic departures from San Diego International (SAN). 86.0% left less than 15 minutes late and 85.2% reached their destination on time; 0.3% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 83.1% of flights departed on time and 83.8% arrived on time, so SAN departures were 2.9 points above the national departure figure.

Flights arriving at SAN that month were on time 86.6% of the time (7,848 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, late-arriving aircraft 39%, air carrier 33% and national aviation system 24%.

On time 85.2%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 14.3%
Cancelled 0.3%
Diverted 0.3%

Every scheduled departure from SAN in December 2023, judged by arrival at the destination.

December 2023 against a year earlier, the airport's year and the nation

Measure	Dec 2023	Year earlier	SAN, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, Dec 2023
Departed on time	86.0%	—	73.5%	83.1%
Arrived on time	85.2%	—	76.1%	83.8%
Cancelled	0.3%	—	1.3%	0.4%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	8.8 min	—	16.6 min	11.6 min
Scheduled departures a day	262	—	275	19,013
Scheduled departures	7,848	—	100,196	570,394

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
WN Southwest Airlines	3,142	40%	84.5%	1.4 min	0.4%
OO SkyWest Airlines	969	12%	86.3%	-2.5 min	0.2%
UA United Airlines	831	11%	88.8%	-2.0 min	0.2%
DL Delta Air Lines	797	10%	93.2%	-8.2 min	0.0%
AS Alaska Airlines	787	10%	80.8%	-0.1 min	0.3%
AA American Airlines	707	9%	86.7%	2.7 min	0.0%
F9 Frontier Airlines	223	3%	84.3%	-2.1 min	0.0%
NK Spirit Airlines	167	2%	85.6%	-5.5 min	0.0%
B6 JetBlue Airways	159	2%	58.5%	28.9 min	0.0%
HA Hawaiian Airlines	53	1%	64.2%	7.1 min	0.0%
G4 Allegiant Air	13	0%	69.2%	26.0 min	0.0%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
SAN–LAS	San Diego to Las Vegas	587	84.8%	-1.7 min	0.2%
SAN–SFO	San Diego to San Francisco	540	77.4%	3.6 min	0.2%
SAN–PHX	San Diego to Phoenix	499	85.4%	0.4 min	0.6%
SAN–SJC	San Diego to San Jose	480	85.2%	-1.5 min	0.8%
SAN–SMF	San Diego to Sacramento	455	88.1%	-2.1 min	0.0%
SAN–DEN	San Diego to Denver	448	90.8%	0.0 min	0.2%
SAN–SEA	San Diego to Seattle	382	89.0%	-8.6 min	0.0%
SAN–OAK	San Diego to Oakland	321	84.7%	0.8 min	1.2%
SAN–DFW	San Diego to Dallas/Fort Worth	287	85.0%	2.7 min	0.0%
SAN–JFK	San Diego to New York	224	79.9%	4.6 min	0.0%
SAN–ORD	San Diego to Chicago	213	90.6%	1.7 min	0.0%
SAN–SLC	San Diego to Salt Lake City	207	91.8%	-6.7 min	0.0%

By scheduled departure hour

On-time share:under 62%6270768288% and over

Share of departures that left less than 15 minutes late, by scheduled hour (local time), December 2023.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	National, Dec 2023	Minutes
Air carrier	33.2%	37.1%	20,017
Late-arriving aircraft	39.2%	38.8%	23,631
National Aviation System	23.5%	17.6%	14,174
Extreme weather	3.1%	6.2%	1,899
Security	1.0%	0.3%	574

60,295 delay minutes on 1,119 flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late and carried a cause report. Carriers assign the categories; see what each category means.

Questions and answers

How many flights left SAN on time in December 2023?

86.0% of 7,848 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 85.2% reached their destination on time. The national figures that month were 83.1% and 83.8%.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

December 2022 is outside the 36 months on file, or the airport had too few reported flights that month.

Provenance

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, file for December 2023; public domain. Domestic scheduled flights by reporting carriers, totals and averages only. The site's data runs through July 2026. Full record for SAN · methodology · corrections.