PlainFlights

JFK vs SFO - Airport Comparison

Select two airports to compare on-time performance, delays, cancellations, and top routes using U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) data (2020–2025) across all 50 states. See our methodology for how metrics are computed.

Airport A
JFK

New York, NY

New York, New York

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Airport B
SFO

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco, California

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Key Performance Metrics

BTS on-time performance data, 2020–2025 cumulative.

Metric JFK SFO
On-Time Rate (higher is better) 79.4% 81.0%
Avg Delay (lower is better) 82.5 min 72.5 min
Delay Rate (lower is better) 20.6% 19.0%
Cancellation Rate (lower is better) 1.33% 0.85%
Total Flights 1,274,816 1,466,784
Delayed Flights 263,153 278,538
Cancelled Flights 16,932 12,405
Top Delay Cause Carrier Late Aircraft

✓ / ▲ indicates the more favorable value. Data: BTS On-Time Performance, 2020–2025.

Delay Cause Breakdown

JFK - New York, NY

Carrier 43.4%
Late Aircraft 28.3%
NAS 24.4%
Weather 3.6%
Security 0.2%

SFO - San Francisco, CA

Late Aircraft 42.0%
Carrier 36.9%
NAS 17.9%
Weather 3.2%
Security 0.1%

Top Routes

Top routes from JFK

Route Flights On-Time
JFK → LAX
Los Angeles
53,628 81.3%
LAX → JFK
New York
53,619 81.8%
JFK → SFO
San Francisco
35,481 81.9%
SFO → JFK
New York
35,481 83.2%
JFK → BOS
Boston
30,732 77.6%
BOS → JFK
New York
30,700 80.3%

Top routes from SFO

Route Flights On-Time
LAX → SFO
San Francisco
63,553 78.7%
SFO → LAX
Los Angeles
63,540 82.9%
SFO → SEA
Seattle
37,671 82.1%
SEA → SFO
San Francisco
37,651 79.1%
JFK → SFO
San Francisco
35,481 81.9%
SFO → JFK
New York
35,481 83.2%

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), On-Time Performance Data (2020–2025) Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), On-Time Performance Data (2020–2025) On-time rates exclude cancelled and diverted flights. PlainFlights is not affiliated with BTS or the DOT

Every figure on PlainFlights is rendered directly from BTS On-Time Performance data, no number is typed in by an editor. This tool queries live on-time, delay, and cancellation figures for the two selected airports from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.