San Francisco International in May 2024

71.2%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 May 2024, reporting carriers scheduled 10,974 domestic departures from San Francisco International (SFO). 71.2% left less than 15 minutes late and 74.9% reached their destination on time; 0.8% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 73.4% of flights departed on time and 72.3% arrived on time, so SFO departures were 2.2 points below the national departure figure.

Flights arriving at SFO that month were on time 57.7% of the time (10,991 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, late-arriving aircraft 53%, air carrier 29% and national aviation system 16%.

On time 74.9%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 24.0%
Cancelled 0.8%
Diverted 0.3%

Every scheduled departure from SFO in May 2024, judged by arrival at the destination.

May 2024 against a year earlier, the airport's year and the nation

Measure	May 2024	Year earlier	SFO, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, May 2024
Departed on time	71.2%	—	75.1%	73.4%
Arrived on time	74.9%	—	75.6%	72.3%
Cancelled	0.8%	—	1.0%	1.4%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	19.6 min	—	17.8 min	20.8 min
Scheduled departures a day	366	—	404	20,325
Scheduled departures	10,974	—	147,566	609,743

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
UA United Airlines	4,042	37%	80.6%	0.8 min	0.8%
OO SkyWest Airlines	2,310	21%	79.5%	3.5 min	0.2%
DL Delta Air Lines	1,164	11%	78.3%	4.0 min	0.0%
AS Alaska Airlines	1,031	9%	71.6%	7.4 min	1.0%
AA American Airlines	910	8%	66.3%	29.9 min	2.9%
WN Southwest Airlines	604	6%	55.8%	22.8 min	0.3%
F9 Frontier Airlines	432	4%	35.0%	37.7 min	3.7%
B6 JetBlue Airways	414	4%	79.2%	-0.9 min	0.2%
HA Hawaiian Airlines	62	1%	82.3%	-2.4 min	1.6%
MQ Envoy Air	5	0%	20.0%	30.8 min	0.0%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
SFO–LAX	San Francisco to Los Angeles	1,002	72.4%	12.6 min	0.3%
SFO–JFK	San Francisco to New York	599	81.0%	-3.7 min	0.0%
SFO–SEA	San Francisco to Seattle	547	69.1%	10.6 min	0.7%
SFO–SAN	San Francisco to San Diego	522	70.9%	12.4 min	1.0%
SFO–DEN	San Francisco to Denver	475	66.1%	12.8 min	0.6%
SFO–LAS	San Francisco to Las Vegas	468	61.1%	20.2 min	0.4%
SFO–ORD	San Francisco to Chicago	464	72.6%	10.4 min	2.6%
SFO–PHX	San Francisco to Phoenix	415	70.4%	11.7 min	0.5%
SFO–BOS	San Francisco to Boston	398	76.4%	2.6 min	0.5%
SFO–DFW	San Francisco to Dallas/Fort Worth	339	53.4%	35.3 min	7.1%
SFO–EWR	San Francisco to Newark	337	76.6%	4.4 min	3.3%
SFO–SNA	San Francisco to Santa Ana	332	81.0%	2.3 min	0.6%

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), May 2024.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	National, May 2024	Minutes
Air carrier	29.1%	29.8%	50,374
Late-arriving aircraft	53.1%	43.0%	92,099
National Aviation System	15.9%	20.1%	27,505
Extreme weather	1.9%	7.0%	3,325
Security	0.1%	0.1%	93

173,396 delay minutes on 2,634 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 May 2024?

71.2% of 10,974 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 74.9% reached their destination on time. The national figures that month were 73.4% and 72.3%.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

May 2023 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 May 2024; 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.