Salt Lake City to San Francisco

What the Data Says About SLC to SFO

The Salt Lake City to San Francisco corridor (SLC → SFO) covers roughly 599 miles and is served by 17 carriers, based on Bureau of Transportation Statistics reporting. Across 19,871 flights in the dataset, this route posts a 80% on-time rate with an average delay of 69.3 minutes when flights run late. Over the most recent 24 months of BTS data, 6,957 flights were recorded on this pairing — 45 cancelled (0.6%) and 9 diverted (0.1%). Those baseline metrics tell you what to expect before you book.

Having 17 carriers on the route matters: more carriers generally means more daily schedule options, competitive pricing, and redundancy when flights are cancelled. With 19,871 total flights analyzed, the 80% on-time figure is statistically meaningful rather than a small-sample fluke. The 69.3-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, Jan 2025 posted the best performance on this corridor at 88% on-time, while Mar 2024 came in at 50% on-time — a 38-point gap between best and worst recent month. For travelers evaluating the SLC to SFO route, the combination of a 80% on-time rate, 69.3-minute average delay, 0.6% recent cancellation rate, and 17 available carriers is the concrete summary of what BTS data shows about reliability on this pairing.