The flight time from San Francisco to Boston is 5 hours, 33 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves SFO San Francisco, CA 2 minutes early.
19 minutes taxiing out
5 hours, 5 minutes in the air
7 minutes taxiing in
Arrives BOS Boston, MA 5 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

Alaska
85%
JetBlue
80%
Delta
80%
United
78%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from San Francisco to Boston is 5 hours, 33 minutes. The time spent in the air is 5 hours, 5 minutes.

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

Reverse Journey

Boston to San Francisco
6 hours, 28 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

United
5h 32m
JetBlue
5h 34m
Delta
5h 34m
Alaska
5h 36m
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

89

Distance

2704 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0100200300400

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun0510

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

United
35
JetBlue
31
Delta
11
Alaska
10

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is San Francisco from Boston by plane?

The distance from San Francisco to Boston 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 San Francisco to Boston?

The flight time from San Francisco to Boston is 5 hours, 33 minutes. The time spent in the air is 5 hours, 5 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with United being the fastest taking 5 hours, 32 minutes, and Alaska the slowest taking 5 hours, 36 minutes.

What airlines fly from San Francisco to Boston?

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

Does Southwest fly from San Francisco to Boston?

Southwest does not fly from San Francisco (SFO) to Boston (BOS). 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 San Francisco 2 minutes early
Taxi Out Time 19 minutes
In the Air 305 minutes
Taxiing In 7 minutes
Arrives Boston 5 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 San Francisco to Boston, Alaska is 85% reliable, which means that Alaska flights are on time 85% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
Alaska 85% 15% 0%
JetBlue 80% 19% 1%
Delta 80% 19% 1%
United 78% 20% 2%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between San Francisco and Boston, 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 21 302 6 332
JetBlue 16 306 8 334
Delta 18 304 10 334
Alaska 18 308 7 336

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
9am 0.02
3pm 0.52
11am 0.9
6am 0.65
2pm 0.81
1pm 1.55
9pm 0.85
10pm 0.74
4pm 0.4
12pm 0.93
8pm 0.76
10am 0.68
8am 1.22
7am 0.96
11pm 1.57

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from San Francisco to Boston 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 337
February 307
March 363
April 343
May 416
June 426
July 428
August 443
September 447
October 439
November 346
December 343

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from San Francisco to Boston 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 13.08
Tuesday 12.79
Wednesday 12.85
Thursday 13.23
Friday 13.27
Saturday 10.62
Sunday 13.37

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)
9am 30 288 15 334
3pm 15 308 8 335
11am 26 304 7 338
6am 17 306 8 334
2pm 16 304 7 329
1pm 19 303 8 331
9pm 18 304 8 331
10pm 19 303 11 337
4pm 20 303 5 329
12pm 18 303 7 332
8pm 18 305 6 329
10am 21 307 8 338
8am 20 306 7 336
7am 17 308 7 335
11pm 21 303 7 333
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.