San Francisco International in December 2025

73.9%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 2025, reporting carriers scheduled 11,975 domestic departures from San Francisco International (SFO). 73.9% left less than 15 minutes late and 75.3% reached their destination on time; 1.1% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 72.0% of flights departed on time and 71.9% arrived on time, so SFO departures were 1.9 points above the national departure figure.

A year earlier, in December 2024, the airport had 12,097 departures with 76.9% leaving on time: a change of −3.0 points, with flights down 1%.

Flights arriving at SFO that month were on time 68.6% of the time (11,983 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, late-arriving aircraft 44%, air carrier 31% and national aviation system 18%.

On time 75.3%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 23.3%
Cancelled 1.1%
Diverted 0.3%

Every scheduled departure from SFO in December 2025, judged by arrival at the destination.

December 2025 against a year earlier, the airport's year and the nation

Measure	Dec 2025	Dec 2024	SFO, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, Dec 2025
Departed on time	73.9%	76.9%	75.1%	72.0%
Arrived on time	75.3%	77.3%	75.6%	71.9%
Cancelled	1.1%	0.7%	1.0%	1.5%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	21.6 min	16.9 min	17.8 min	21.2 min
Scheduled departures a day	399	403	404	19,410
Scheduled departures	11,975	12,097	147,566	582,304

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
UA United Airlines	4,916	41%	80.3%	3.5 min	0.2%
OO SkyWest Airlines	2,793	23%	69.4%	23.7 min	2.2%
DL Delta Air Lines	1,099	9%	75.9%	8.0 min	2.2%
AA American Airlines	884	7%	82.0%	6.8 min	0.7%
AS Alaska Airlines	849	7%	74.3%	8.3 min	0.8%
WN Southwest Airlines	747	6%	59.8%	24.8 min	0.4%
B6 JetBlue Airways	340	3%	75.6%	13.0 min	1.5%
F9 Frontier Airlines	260	2%	65.8%	20.1 min	3.1%
HA Hawaiian Airlines	86	1%	75.6%	-4.7 min	5.8%
MQ Envoy Air	1	0%	0.0%	35.0 min	0.0%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
SFO–LAX	San Francisco to Los Angeles	846	70.8%	13.8 min	0.6%
SFO–SEA	San Francisco to Seattle	559	72.8%	12.2 min	0.7%
SFO–JFK	San Francisco to New York	536	77.6%	5.3 min	2.4%
SFO–LAS	San Francisco to Las Vegas	511	77.5%	7.6 min	0.6%
SFO–SAN	San Francisco to San Diego	486	60.5%	24.6 min	0.6%
SFO–DEN	San Francisco to Denver	456	73.9%	10.0 min	0.4%
SFO–PHX	San Francisco to Phoenix	425	74.6%	19.9 min	0.2%
SFO–SNA	San Francisco to Santa Ana	394	76.1%	13.1 min	2.3%
SFO–ORD	San Francisco to Chicago	391	79.5%	2.2 min	0.8%
SFO–EWR	San Francisco to Newark	366	69.9%	14.4 min	0.5%
SFO–BOS	San Francisco to Boston	356	81.2%	-0.3 min	0.6%
SFO–DFW	San Francisco to Dallas/Fort Worth	339	78.2%	6.8 min	0.9%

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 2025.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	National, Dec 2025	Minutes
Air carrier	30.5%	33.3%	68,946
Late-arriving aircraft	44.2%	41.1%	99,848
National Aviation System	17.9%	19.1%	40,510
Extreme weather	7.2%	6.4%	16,361
Security	0.0%	0.2%	56

225,721 delay minutes on 2,794 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 2025?

73.9% of 11,975 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 75.3% reached their destination on time. The national figures that month were 72.0% and 71.9%.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

In December 2024, 76.9% of 12,097 departures left on time and 0.7% were cancelled, against 73.9% and 1.1% in December 2025.

Provenance

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, file for December 2025; 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.