San Francisco International in September 2023

83.4%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 September 2023, reporting carriers scheduled 11,543 domestic departures from San Francisco International (SFO). 83.4% left less than 15 minutes late and 82.6% reached their destination on time; 0.6% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 80.5% of flights departed on time and 80.1% arrived on time, so SFO departures were 2.9 points above the national departure figure.

Flights arriving at SFO that month were on time 79.4% of the time (11,561 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, late-arriving aircraft 43%, air carrier 37% and national aviation system 18%.

On time 82.6%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 16.6%
Cancelled 0.6%
Diverted 0.2%

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

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

Measure	Sep 2023	Year earlier	SFO, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, Sep 2023
Departed on time	83.4%	—	75.1%	80.5%
Arrived on time	82.6%	—	75.6%	80.1%
Cancelled	0.6%	—	1.0%	1.2%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	12.1 min	—	17.8 min	14.1 min
Scheduled departures a day	385	—	404	18,978
Scheduled departures	11,543	—	147,566	569,338

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
UA United Airlines	3,983	35%	83.3%	0.9 min	0.7%
OO SkyWest Airlines	2,955	26%	84.9%	2.7 min	0.1%
DL Delta Air Lines	1,129	10%	87.5%	-3.1 min	0.6%
AS Alaska Airlines	995	9%	80.2%	3.1 min	0.4%
AA American Airlines	876	8%	86.4%	0.7 min	1.1%
WN Southwest Airlines	754	7%	75.3%	6.6 min	0.4%
B6 JetBlue Airways	456	4%	62.7%	26.2 min	1.5%
F9 Frontier Airlines	331	3%	78.9%	6.6 min	1.2%
HA Hawaiian Airlines	64	1%	65.6%	18.5 min	14.1%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
SFO–LAX	San Francisco to Los Angeles	996	84.5%	-0.7 min	0.2%
SFO–JFK	San Francisco to New York	628	70.5%	15.7 min	2.4%
SFO–SEA	San Francisco to Seattle	565	84.2%	-0.5 min	0.5%
SFO–SAN	San Francisco to San Diego	521	83.7%	2.0 min	0.0%
SFO–LAS	San Francisco to Las Vegas	500	75.8%	8.0 min	1.0%
SFO–DEN	San Francisco to Denver	468	79.9%	5.5 min	0.2%
SFO–BOS	San Francisco to Boston	450	66.9%	21.4 min	1.8%
SFO–ORD	San Francisco to Chicago	431	87.7%	-2.4 min	0.5%
SFO–SNA	San Francisco to Santa Ana	409	86.8%	3.3 min	0.7%
SFO–EWR	San Francisco to Newark	353	65.4%	10.6 min	1.7%
SFO–PHX	San Francisco to Phoenix	340	85.6%	0.8 min	0.3%
SFO–DFW	San Francisco to Dallas/Fort Worth	325	84.9%	3.6 min	0.3%

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), September 2023.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	National, Sep 2023	Minutes
Air carrier	36.9%	36.4%	45,826
Late-arriving aircraft	42.9%	38.3%	53,397
National Aviation System	17.9%	19.9%	22,217
Extreme weather	2.3%	5.1%	2,854
Security	0.0%	0.2%	58

124,352 delay minutes on 1,914 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 September 2023?

83.4% of 11,543 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 82.6% reached their destination on time. The national figures that month were 80.5% and 80.1%.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

September 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 September 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.