Salt Lake City to San Diego

What the Data Says About SLC to SAN

The Salt Lake City to San Diego corridor (SLC → SAN) covers roughly 626 miles and is served by 19 carriers, based on Bureau of Transportation Statistics reporting. Across 14,238 flights in the dataset, this route posts a 84% on-time rate with an average delay of 64.0 minutes when flights run late. Over the most recent 24 months of BTS data, 5,311 flights were recorded on this pairing — 27 cancelled (0.5%) and 13 diverted (0.2%). Those baseline metrics tell you what to expect before you book.

Having 19 carriers on the route matters: more carriers generally means more daily schedule options, competitive pricing, and redundancy when flights are cancelled. With 14,238 total flights analyzed, the 84% on-time figure is statistically meaningful rather than a small-sample fluke. The 64.0-minute average delay applies only to flights that actually ran late, so it is not the average wait across all departures — the majority of flights on this route depart on time under the BTS definition of a delay (15+ minutes past schedule).

Looking at recent months, Apr 2024 posted the best performance on this corridor at 90% on-time, while Sep 2024 came in at 74% on-time — a 16-point gap between best and worst recent month. For travelers evaluating the SLC to SAN route, the combination of a 84% on-time rate, 64.0-minute average delay, 0.5% recent cancellation rate, and 19 available carriers is the concrete summary of what BTS data shows about reliability on this pairing.