San Francisco International in December 2023

80.4%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 December 2023, reporting carriers scheduled 11,036 domestic departures from San Francisco International (SFO). 80.4% left less than 15 minutes late and 78.7% reached their destination on time; 0.2% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 83.1% of flights departed on time and 83.8% arrived on time, so SFO departures were 2.7 points below the national departure figure.

Flights arriving at SFO that month were on time 79.6% of the time (11,059 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, late-arriving aircraft 40%, air carrier 30% and national aviation system 22%.

On time 78.7%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 20.8%
Cancelled 0.2%
Diverted 0.3%

Every scheduled departure from SFO 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	SFO, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, Dec 2023
Departed on time	80.4%	—	75.1%	83.1%
Arrived on time	78.7%	—	75.6%	83.8%
Cancelled	0.2%	—	1.0%	0.4%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	14.9 min	—	17.8 min	11.6 min
Scheduled departures a day	368	—	404	19,013
Scheduled departures	11,036	—	147,566	570,394

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
UA United Airlines	4,024	36%	78.3%	7.2 min	0.1%
OO SkyWest Airlines	2,785	25%	77.8%	11.3 min	0.5%
DL Delta Air Lines	1,034	9%	88.6%	-3.2 min	0.0%
AS Alaska Airlines	897	8%	80.0%	2.7 min	0.7%
AA American Airlines	775	7%	84.9%	2.3 min	0.0%
WN Southwest Airlines	768	7%	71.4%	12.1 min	0.1%
B6 JetBlue Airways	402	4%	70.9%	12.2 min	0.2%
F9 Frontier Airlines	298	3%	69.1%	14.0 min	0.3%
HA Hawaiian Airlines	53	0%	66.0%	7.5 min	0.0%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
SFO–LAX	San Francisco to Los Angeles	879	77.9%	6.1 min	0.3%
SFO–JFK	San Francisco to New York	545	81.5%	2.3 min	0.0%
SFO–SEA	San Francisco to Seattle	542	80.1%	3.3 min	1.1%
SFO–SAN	San Francisco to San Diego	538	84.2%	2.5 min	0.2%
SFO–DEN	San Francisco to Denver	472	76.1%	10.7 min	0.2%
SFO–LAS	San Francisco to Las Vegas	449	76.6%	7.1 min	0.2%
SFO–BUR	San Francisco to Burbank	376	76.3%	7.6 min	0.3%
SFO–ORD	San Francisco to Chicago	351	76.4%	7.7 min	0.0%
SFO–PHX	San Francisco to Phoenix	344	81.4%	8.2 min	0.0%
SFO–BOS	San Francisco to Boston	343	74.1%	7.9 min	0.3%
SFO–EWR	San Francisco to Newark	334	71.9%	15.3 min	0.0%
SFO–DFW	San Francisco to Dallas/Fort Worth	331	81.6%	2.3 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	30.0%	37.1%	46,324
Late-arriving aircraft	40.1%	38.8%	61,954
National Aviation System	22.1%	17.6%	34,193
Extreme weather	7.7%	6.2%	11,822
Security	0.1%	0.3%	98

154,391 delay minutes on 2,296 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 December 2023?

80.4% of 11,036 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 78.7% 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 SFO · methodology · corrections.