San Francisco International in August 2023

79.4%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 August 2023, reporting carriers scheduled 12,185 domestic departures from San Francisco International (SFO). 79.4% left less than 15 minutes late and 80.4% reached their destination on time; 1.1% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 76.7% of flights departed on time and 76.9% arrived on time, so SFO departures were 2.7 points above the national departure figure.

Flights arriving at SFO that month were on time 77.7% of the time (12,189 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, late-arriving aircraft 45%, air carrier 41% and national aviation system 12%.

On time 80.4%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 18.4%
Cancelled 1.1%
Diverted 0.2%

Every scheduled departure from SFO in August 2023, judged by arrival at the destination.

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

Measure	Aug 2023	Year earlier	SFO, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, Aug 2023
Departed on time	79.4%	—	75.1%	76.7%
Arrived on time	80.4%	—	75.6%	76.9%
Cancelled	1.1%	—	1.0%	1.5%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	14.2 min	—	17.8 min	17.3 min
Scheduled departures a day	406	—	404	20,100
Scheduled departures	12,185	—	147,566	602,987

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
UA United Airlines	4,412	36%	79.5%	3.4 min	1.0%
OO SkyWest Airlines	2,860	23%	83.0%	5.8 min	0.6%
DL Delta Air Lines	1,243	10%	87.4%	-4.4 min	1.3%
AS Alaska Airlines	1,137	9%	83.1%	-0.6 min	0.2%
AA American Airlines	917	8%	81.0%	8.6 min	0.5%
WN Southwest Airlines	772	6%	70.1%	11.5 min	2.3%
B6 JetBlue Airways	448	4%	80.8%	-0.3 min	1.1%
F9 Frontier Airlines	332	3%	59.9%	35.3 min	4.8%
HA Hawaiian Airlines	64	1%	51.6%	27.1 min	15.6%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
SFO–LAX	San Francisco to Los Angeles	988	83.3%	2.2 min	0.5%
SFO–JFK	San Francisco to New York	659	85.1%	-7.7 min	0.5%
SFO–SEA	San Francisco to Seattle	616	84.9%	-1.5 min	0.6%
SFO–SAN	San Francisco to San Diego	570	77.5%	7.2 min	1.8%
SFO–ORD	San Francisco to Chicago	491	81.5%	0.4 min	0.2%
SFO–DEN	San Francisco to Denver	484	74.6%	10.8 min	0.4%
SFO–LAS	San Francisco to Las Vegas	446	73.3%	8.4 min	2.0%
SFO–BOS	San Francisco to Boston	443	78.1%	2.4 min	0.7%
SFO–SNA	San Francisco to Santa Ana	395	84.1%	2.9 min	1.0%
SFO–DFW	San Francisco to Dallas/Fort Worth	364	79.1%	15.0 min	1.1%
SFO–PHX	San Francisco to Phoenix	353	76.5%	9.8 min	0.0%
SFO–EWR	San Francisco to Newark	337	73.6%	5.6 min	1.2%

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), August 2023.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	National, Aug 2023	Minutes
Air carrier	40.6%	36.7%	59,278
Late-arriving aircraft	44.7%	42.2%	65,262
National Aviation System	12.4%	15.7%	18,049
Extreme weather	2.4%	5.1%	3,535
Security	0.0%	0.2%	0

146,124 delay minutes on 2,239 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 SFO on time in August 2023?

79.4% of 12,185 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 80.4% reached their destination on time. The national figures that month were 76.7% and 76.9%.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

August 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 August 2023; public domain. Domestic scheduled flights by reporting carriers, totals and averages only. The site's data runs through July 2026. Full record for SFO · methodology · corrections.