The flight time from Atlanta to San Francisco is 5 hours, 7 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves ATL Atlanta, GA on time.
17 minutes taxiing out
4 hours, 40 minutes in the air
7 minutes taxiing in
Arrives SFO San Francisco, CA 3 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

Delta
82%
United
73%
Frontier
63%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from Atlanta to San Francisco is 5 hours, 7 minutes. The time spent in the air is 4 hours, 40 minutes.

The flight distance from Atlanta to San Francisco is 2139 Miles.

Reverse Journey

San Francisco to Atlanta
4 hours, 29 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

Delta
5h 4m
United
5h 10m
Frontier
5h 22m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM1h2h3h4h5h
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0.00.51.01.52.0

Flights Per Week

60

Distance

2139 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0100200300

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun0246810

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

Delta
44
United
9
Frontier
6

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is Atlanta from San Francisco by plane?

The distance from Atlanta to San Francisco by plane is 2139 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

How long is the flight from Atlanta to San Francisco?

The flight time from Atlanta to San Francisco is 5 hours, 7 minutes. The time spent in the air is 4 hours, 40 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with Delta being the fastest taking 5 hours, 4 minutes, and Frontier the slowest taking 5 hours, 22 minutes.

What airlines fly from Atlanta to San Francisco?

Frontier, United, and Delta are the airlines with direct flights from Atlanta to San Francisco.

Does Southwest fly from Atlanta to San Francisco?

Southwest does not fly from Atlanta (ATL) to San Francisco (SFO). Keep in mind that Southwest may fly to other nearby airports, as they will often fly into smaller airpors instead of larger ones. This is because the costs are often lower to fly into smaller airports, and they pass the savings on to you.

Tables and Explanations

Data Source

Our information is computed from the latest available data from the US Department of Transportation.

Average Timeline Timeline Chart

The average timeline contains the median time a flight spends in 3 stages. The first of these three stages is taxiing out which includes the time from the flight leaving the gate to taking off. The second stage is in the air, which includes the time spent from the flight leaving the ground to touching back down at the end of it's journey. The last stage is taxiing in, which is from when the flight touches down to the flight arriving at it's gate.

The average timeline also estimates on average of when the flight will leave and arrive relative to it's stated departure time.

Leaves Atlanta on time
Taxi Out Time 17 minutes
In the Air 280 minutes
Taxiing In 7 minutes
Arrives San Francisco 3 minutes early

Flight Reliability Reliability Chart

The reliability of an airline measures how often the airline's flights on this route are cancelled or delayed more than 20 minutes. For example, from Atlanta to San Francisco, Frontier is 63% reliable, which means that Frontier flights are on time 63% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
Delta 82% 17% 1%
United 73% 26% 1%
Frontier 63% 35% 2%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between Atlanta and San Francisco, this is due to different operational factors on the ground, as well as scheduling of planes. Each airline's flight time is split into three stages which are described above in the "Average Timeline" section. There are also miscellaneous operational issues which are included in the below total but are not accounted for in one of the three stages.

Airline Taxiing Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxiing In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
Delta 17 279 6 304
United 18 283 6 310
Frontier 19 287 13 322

Flights By Time of Day Flight Time By Day Chart

This one is pretty self explanatory, it represents the number of flights that leave the gate in a given hour of the day. The tricky thing here is that this is normally not a whole number since it is an average over 52 weeks. Partial numbers may indicate that a flight may be seasonal or may take off at different times due to different operational factors.

Time Count
12pm 0.1
5pm 0.64
6pm 0.75
6am 0
3pm 0.51
7pm 1.27
1pm 0
9pm 0.66
8pm 0.32
11am 0.78
2pm 0.47
10am 0.64
9am 0.01
7am 0.55
8am 1.18
10pm 0.42
4pm 0.17

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from Atlanta to San Francisco that take off in a given month of the year. This number changes because some flights are seasonal, and almost all flights have uneven demand througout the year.

Month Count
January 204
February 172
March 240
April 257
May 263
June 275
July 307
August 308
September 291
October 302
November 269
December 248

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from Atlanta to San Francisco that take off on a given day of the week. Some routes only have enough demand to sustain a few trips a week, while others have many flights a day. This number is also an average across the year, and hence may not be a whole number.

Day Count
Monday 9.15
Tuesday 8.29
Wednesday 8.38
Thursday 8.9
Friday 9.06
Saturday 7.77
Sunday 8.75

Flight per Airline (per Week) Flights By Airline Chart

How many times an airline flies this route in a week. Different factors play into how often a carrier chooses to fly a given route including it's need to connect disparate routes, and demand.

Airline Flights per Week
Delta 1
United 0
Frontier 0

Flight Time By Time of Day Flight Time by Time of Day Chart

The total flight time varies by each hour of the day due to factors such as airport traffic. More flights leaving an airport may cause higher taxi in or taxi out times. See the description of the average timeline above for a deeper discussion of each of these times.

Time Taxi Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxi In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
12pm 14 260 9 291
5pm 16 283 7 309
6pm 17 283 9 314
6am 12 274 8 294
3pm 17 283 6 307
7pm 20 285 6 313
1pm 17 300 4 321
9pm 16 280 7 307
8pm 16 278 6 303
11am 15 280 7 306
2pm 15 278 6 300
10am 19 274 7 303
9am 17 279 10 308
7am 16 285 6 308
8am 19 279 6 307
10pm 15 277 6 301
4pm 17 272 6 299
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.