John Wayne Airport-Orange County in December 2023

85.7%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 3,631 domestic departures from John Wayne Airport-Orange County (SNA). 85.7% left less than 15 minutes late and 87.3% reached their destination on time; 0.6% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 83.1% of flights departed on time and 83.8% arrived on time, so SNA departures were 2.6 points above the national departure figure.

Flights arriving at SNA that month were on time 88.0% of the time (3,632 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, air carrier 42%, late-arriving aircraft 34% and national aviation system 19%.

On time 87.3%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 12.0%
Cancelled 0.6%
Diverted 0.1%

Every scheduled departure from SNA 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	SNA, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, Dec 2023
Departed on time	85.7%	—	78.9%	83.1%
Arrived on time	87.3%	—	80.3%	83.8%
Cancelled	0.6%	—	1.1%	0.4%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	10.4 min	—	15.2 min	11.6 min
Scheduled departures a day	121	—	124	19,013
Scheduled departures	3,631	—	45,231	570,394

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
WN Southwest Airlines	1,318	36%	87.6%	-1.5 min	0.7%
UA United Airlines	514	14%	89.7%	-4.1 min	0.0%
AA American Airlines	481	13%	89.2%	3.6 min	0.0%
DL Delta Air Lines	397	11%	91.2%	-3.6 min	0.3%
AS Alaska Airlines	329	9%	90.0%	-10.9 min	2.1%
OO SkyWest Airlines	252	7%	77.8%	4.2 min	0.4%
F9 Frontier Airlines	124	3%	84.7%	-0.8 min	0.0%
NK Spirit Airlines	114	3%	86.8%	-4.8 min	0.0%
G4 Allegiant Air	102	3%	66.7%	23.8 min	2.0%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
SNA–LAS	Santa Ana to Las Vegas	362	85.6%	-2.3 min	0.6%
SNA–PHX	Santa Ana to Phoenix	355	88.2%	5.6 min	0.0%
SNA–SEA	Santa Ana to Seattle	339	90.9%	-10.6 min	1.5%
SNA–DEN	Santa Ana to Denver	333	88.9%	-2.5 min	0.0%
SNA–SFO	Santa Ana to San Francisco	291	76.6%	7.7 min	0.0%
SNA–OAK	Santa Ana to Oakland	249	83.9%	-0.3 min	1.6%
SNA–SJC	Santa Ana to San Jose	249	88.8%	-1.8 min	0.8%
SNA–DFW	Santa Ana to Dallas/Fort Worth	229	89.5%	-7.4 min	0.0%
SNA–SMF	Santa Ana to Sacramento	192	92.2%	-4.0 min	0.5%
SNA–SLC	Santa Ana to Salt Lake City	152	92.1%	-2.6 min	0.0%
SNA–ORD	Santa Ana to Chicago	151	90.7%	-4.6 min	0.0%
SNA–EWR	Santa Ana to Newark	93	89.2%	-3.0 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	42.0%	37.1%	13,066
Late-arriving aircraft	34.0%	38.8%	10,560
National Aviation System	18.8%	17.6%	5,850
Extreme weather	5.1%	6.2%	1,570
Security	0.1%	0.3%	32

31,078 delay minutes on 437 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 SNA on time in December 2023?

85.7% of 3,631 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 87.3% 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 SNA · methodology · corrections.