Routes › San Diego (SAN) › SAN to PHL
Route · 12 months to July 2026
San Diego to Philadelphia: on-time record
San Diego International to Philadelphia International
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. Data through July 2026; this is a monthly history, not live flight status.
Flights from San Diego (SAN) to Philadelphia (PHL) arrived on time 85.8% of the time in the 12 months to July 2026. Reporting carriers scheduled 1,046 flights on the route in that period, about 3 a day, a distance of 2,370 miles.
That is 9.8 points above the national on-time share of 76.0% for the same period and 9.7 points above the 76.1% recorded for all departures from SAN. Flights that did arrive were 1.5 minutes early on average, and 1.4% of scheduled flights were cancelled (national: 1.8%).
American Airlines is the only reporting carrier on the route, with 1,046 flights in the period.
By scheduled departure hour (local time at SAN), flights leaving from 10 pm to 11 pm had the highest on-time share, 92.8%; those leaving from 9 am to 10 am had the lowest, 78.0%.
The on-time share is up 2.9 points on the previous 12 months (82.9%); cancellations moved from 1.2% to 1.4%.
Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category on this route, air carrier 51%, late-arriving aircraft 27% and extreme weather 12%.
- On time 85.8%
- Arrived 15+ minutes late 11.8%
- Cancelled 1.4%
- Diverted 1.1%
Airlines on the route compared
| Reporting carrier | Flights | Share | On time | Avg arrival delay | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA American Airlines | 1,046 | 100% | 85.8% | -1.5 min | 1.4% |
Carriers with at least 24 flights in the 12 months to July 2026. The on-time pill is green when a carrier is at or above the route's overall share. Regional carriers operate flights sold under larger airlines' brands; BTS lists the carrier that operated the flight.
Compared with the airports and the nation
| Measure | SAN to PHL | All departures from SAN | All arrivals at PHL | All reported flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrived on time | 85.8% | 76.1% | 74.8% | 76.0% |
| Arrived 15+ minutes late | 11.8% | 22.2% | 22.3% | 21.9% |
| Cancelled | 1.4% | 1.3% | 2.7% | 1.8% |
| Diverted | 1.1% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.3% |
| Average arrival delay | -1.5 min | 5.7 min | 11.4 min | 8.1 min |
| Delay minutes per 100 flights | 1,465 | 1,468 | 2,089 | 1,684 |
| Scheduled flights | 1,046 | 100,196 | 100,783 | 7,043,858 |
12 months to July 2026. Delay minutes count late arrivals only (an early arrival is zero), so the per-100-flights row is a normalised total rather than an average of early and late.
The return direction, PHL to SAN, recorded 77.6% on time across 1,046 flights in the same period.
Month by month
Year on year: on time 85.8% against 82.9% (+2.9 pts), cancelled 1.4% against 1.2%, flights 1,046 against 1,005.
By scheduled departure hour
Delay causes
Seasonality
| Calendar month | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg arrival delay | Years in sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 220 | 84.5% | 3.2% | -8.2 min | 3 |
| Feb | 209 | 81.3% | 3.3% | -1.7 min | 3 |
| Mar | 241 | 80.9% | 0.8% | 7.3 min | 3 |
| Apr | 241 | 88.4% | 0.0% | -8.9 min | 3 |
| May | 244 | 89.3% | 1.2% | -6.9 min | 3 |
| Jun | 266 | 83.1% | 2.6% | 2.5 min | 3 |
| Jul | 279 | 78.5% | 2.5% | 22.0 min | 3 |
| Aug | 278 | 87.8% | 1.1% | -5.9 min | 3 |
| Sep | 269 | 87.4% | 1.1% | 0.3 min | 3 |
| Oct | 249 | 87.1% | 0.0% | -0.6 min | 3 |
| Nov | 254 | 87.4% | 0.4% | -1.2 min | 3 |
| Dec | 260 | 87.7% | 0.4% | 9.4 min | 3 |
Each calendar month summed across the 36 months on file, so most rows combine three years. The pill compares the month with the route's own 12-month share.
Other routes from San Diego (SAN)
| Route | Cities | Flights | On time | Avg arrival delay | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAN–SFO | San Diego to San Francisco | 6,660 | 61.3% | 17.1 min | 1.3% |
| SAN–DEN | San Diego to Denver | 6,033 | 78.3% | 3.6 min | 0.9% |
| SAN–PHX | San Diego to Phoenix | 5,976 | 73.2% | 11.0 min | 1.6% |
| SAN–LAS | San Diego to Las Vegas | 5,612 | 73.9% | 7.5 min | 1.4% |
| SAN–SMF | San Diego to Sacramento | 5,174 | 75.3% | 4.8 min | 0.9% |
| SAN–SJC | San Diego to San Jose | 4,958 | 75.8% | 4.6 min | 0.8% |
| SAN–SEA | San Diego to Seattle | 4,593 | 79.7% | 1.8 min | 1.5% |
| SAN–ORD | San Diego to Chicago | 3,869 | 76.1% | 7.1 min | 1.3% |
All 73 routes and the airport record for SAN · airport record for PHL
Questions and answers
How often are flights from San Diego to Philadelphia on time?
85.8% of the 1,046 flights scheduled from SAN to PHL in the 12 months to July 2026 arrived less than 15 minutes after their scheduled time. The national share for the same period was 76.0%. Cancelled and diverted flights count as not on time.
Which airline has the highest on-time share from SAN to PHL?
American Airlines is the only reporting carrier with at least 60 flights on the route in the period, so there is no comparison to make.
What causes delays between San Diego and Philadelphia?
For flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late, carriers attributed the delay minutes as follows: air carrier 51%, late-arriving aircraft 27%, extreme weather 12%, national aviation system 9%, security 1%. The categories are the carriers' own reports to BTS; weather that slows the wider system is usually recorded under the National Aviation System rather than extreme weather.
What time of day has the highest on-time share from SAN?
Flights scheduled to leave SAN from 10 pm to 11 pm arrived on time 92.8% of the time, the highest of any hour with enough flights to compare. The lowest was 9 am to 10 am at 78.0%. Delays tend to build through the day as late aircraft carry over to later flights.
Is it getting better?
The on-time share for the 12 months to July 2026 was 85.8%, up 2.9 points on the previous 12 months (82.9%). The monthly chart on this page shows each of the last 36 months. Across those months, May had the highest on-time share (89.3%) and July the lowest (78.5%).
Where does this data come from?
Every figure is computed from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance files, which list each scheduled domestic flight by the carriers required to report. This page covers August 2023 to July 2026. It shows totals and averages only; it is not a live flight-status service.
Provenance
Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance (1987 to present), monthly files August 2023 to July 2026, a US government work in the public domain. Figures are totals and averages over all scheduled flights by reporting carriers on the route; no individual flight or aircraft is identified. Times are local to the departure airport. The load factor and passenger counts from the BTS T-100 series are not included in this edition. See the methodology; report processing errors through corrections.