OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

San Francisco to Atlanta

2,139 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on SFO–ATL arrive on time 81% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate81%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay30 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled0.8%of scheduled flights

based on 3,202 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

Too close to call — no single carrier is clearly more on-time here.

  • United Airlines
    On-time85%
    Medianon time
    p9025 min
    Cancel0.2%
    Flights640
  • Delta Air Lines
    On-time82%
    Medianon time
    p9030 min
    Cancel0.7%
    Flights2,409
  • Frontier Airlines
    On-time51%
    Median10 min
    p90135 min
    Cancel3.9%
    Flights153

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline44%
  • Weather1%
  • Air traffic (NAS)12%
  • Late aircraft43%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Airline.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline52%
  • Weather44%
  • Air traffic (NAS)4%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Airline. Shares are among 25 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly SFO → ATL

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 90% on time.

  • Mornings90% on time · p90 10 min · 2,780 flights
  • Middays78% on time · p90 35 min · 2,295 flights
  • Afternoons78% on time · p90 40 min · 878 flights
  • Overnights75% on time · p90 40 min · 3,761 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 77% to 83% on time.

  • Saturdays83% on time · p90 20 min · 1,242 flights
  • Tuesdays83% on time · p90 25 min · 1,283 flights
  • Wednesdays83% on time · p90 25 min · 1,303 flights
  • Thursdays80% on time · p90 35 min · 1,470 flights
  • Mondays80% on time · p90 30 min · 1,486 flights
  • Fridays78% on time · p90 40 min · 1,489 flights
  • Sundays77% on time · p90 45 min · 1,478 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.