San Francisco International in October 2023

84.8%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 October 2023, reporting carriers scheduled 11,784 domestic departures from San Francisco International (SFO). 84.8% left less than 15 minutes late and 85.3% reached their destination on time; 0.3% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 83.8% of flights departed on time and 84.0% arrived on time, so SFO departures were 1.0 points above the national departure figure.

Flights arriving at SFO that month were on time 82.7% of the time (11,785 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, late-arriving aircraft 42%, air carrier 39% and national aviation system 14%.

On time 85.3%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 14.2%
Cancelled 0.3%
Diverted 0.2%

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

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

Measure	Oct 2023	Year earlier	SFO, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, Oct 2023
Departed on time	84.8%	—	75.1%	83.8%
Arrived on time	85.3%	—	75.6%	84.0%
Cancelled	0.3%	—	1.0%	0.4%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	10.1 min	—	17.8 min	11.0 min
Scheduled departures a day	393	—	404	19,966
Scheduled departures	11,784	—	147,566	598,968

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
UA United Airlines	4,236	36%	86.9%	-2.9 min	0.3%
OO SkyWest Airlines	2,911	25%	86.5%	2.1 min	0.2%
DL Delta Air Lines	1,124	10%	93.8%	-11.9 min	0.1%
AS Alaska Airlines	944	8%	86.4%	-4.7 min	0.0%
AA American Airlines	911	8%	85.9%	-1.4 min	0.7%
WN Southwest Airlines	729	6%	67.9%	10.8 min	0.0%
B6 JetBlue Airways	471	4%	82.2%	0.5 min	0.0%
F9 Frontier Airlines	392	3%	70.7%	20.4 min	0.0%
HA Hawaiian Airlines	66	1%	62.1%	11.2 min	24.2%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
SFO–LAX	San Francisco to Los Angeles	1,012	84.1%	0.8 min	0.0%
SFO–JFK	San Francisco to New York	656	87.8%	-11.0 min	0.0%
SFO–LAS	San Francisco to Las Vegas	518	76.3%	10.8 min	0.0%
SFO–SEA	San Francisco to Seattle	513	88.1%	-7.0 min	0.0%
SFO–SAN	San Francisco to San Diego	485	80.8%	3.5 min	0.0%
SFO–DEN	San Francisco to Denver	477	81.1%	4.3 min	0.0%
SFO–BOS	San Francisco to Boston	440	84.3%	-1.1 min	0.5%
SFO–ORD	San Francisco to Chicago	419	85.4%	-1.5 min	0.2%
SFO–SNA	San Francisco to Santa Ana	415	82.9%	2.4 min	0.0%
SFO–PHX	San Francisco to Phoenix	383	72.8%	9.0 min	0.0%
SFO–EWR	San Francisco to Newark	368	89.1%	-9.1 min	1.1%
SFO–DFW	San Francisco to Dallas/Fort Worth	354	80.8%	8.2 min	1.7%

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), October 2023.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	National, Oct 2023	Minutes
Air carrier	39.3%	41.3%	39,184
Late-arriving aircraft	42.2%	40.5%	42,009
National Aviation System	14.1%	14.4%	14,011
Extreme weather	4.4%	3.7%	4,407
Security	0.0%	0.2%	8

99,619 delay minutes on 1,669 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 October 2023?

84.8% of 11,784 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 85.3% reached their destination on time. The national figures that month were 83.8% and 84.0%.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

October 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 October 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.