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The flight time from Boston to San Francisco is 6 hours, 31 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves BOS Boston, MA 1 minute early.
20 minutes taxiing out
6 hours in the air
7 minutes taxiing in
Arrives SFO San Francisco, CA 6 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

United
81%
JetBlue
76%
Delta
75%
Alaska
71%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from Boston to San Francisco is 6 hours, 31 minutes. The time spent in the air is 6 hours.

The flight distance from Boston to San Francisco is 2704 Miles.

Reverse Journey

San Francisco to Boston
5 hours, 33 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

United
6h 27m
JetBlue
6h 30m
Alaska
6h 34m
Delta
6h 39m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM1h2h3h4h5h6h
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0.00.51.01.52.0

Flights Per Week

85

Distance

2704 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0100200300400

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun0510

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

United
31
JetBlue
30
Delta
15
Alaska
8

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is Boston from San Francisco by plane?

The distance from Boston to San Francisco by plane is 2704 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

How long is the flight from Boston to San Francisco?

The flight time from Boston to San Francisco is 6 hours, 31 minutes. The time spent in the air is 6 hours. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with United being the fastest taking 6 hours, 27 minutes, and Delta the slowest taking 6 hours, 39 minutes.

What airlines fly from Boston to San Francisco?

United, Alaska, Delta, and JetBlue are the airlines with direct flights from Boston to San Francisco.

Does Southwest fly from Boston to San Francisco?

Southwest does not fly from Boston (BOS) 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 Boston 1 minute early
Taxi Out Time 20 minutes
In the Air 360 minutes
Taxiing In 7 minutes
Arrives San Francisco 6 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 Boston to San Francisco, Alaska is 71% reliable, which means that Alaska flights are on time 71% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
United 81% 18% 1%
JetBlue 76% 24% 0%
Delta 75% 24% 1%
Alaska 71% 28% 1%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between Boston 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)
United 19 359 6 387
JetBlue 19 359 8 390
Alaska 25 359 7 394
Delta 23 368 6 399

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
3pm 0.22
6am 1.25
1pm 1.1
9am 0.59
8am 1.27
10am 0.58
7pm 0.28
6pm 1.81
11am 0.49
8pm 0.46
12pm 0.14
4pm 0.59
5pm 0.95
5am 0.08
9pm 0.57
7am 1.71

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from Boston 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 306
February 266
March 323
April 325
May 395
June 392
July 443
August 426
September 407
October 425
November 361
December 376

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from Boston 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 12.98
Tuesday 11.81
Wednesday 12.02
Thursday 12.77
Friday 13.23
Saturday 10.17
Sunday 12.5

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
United 1
JetBlue 1
Delta 0
Alaska 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)
3pm 18 364 8 392
6am 19 360 7 388
1pm 17 360 5 385
9am 18 360 7 387
8am 20 358 7 389
10am 19 354 6 381
7pm 19 356 8 386
6pm 23 360 7 394
11am 16 362 5 387
8pm 20 364 7 395
12pm 19 348 7 381
4pm 23 360 6 392
5pm 23 370 7 405
5am 16 376 7 401
9pm 16 356 11 393
7am 21 364 6 394
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.