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The flight time from San Francisco to New York is 5 hours, 27 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves SFO San Francisco, CA 3 minutes early.
17 minutes taxiing out
4 hours, 57 minutes in the air
9 minutes taxiing in
Arrives JFK New York, NY 11 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

American
87%
JetBlue
86%
Delta
84%
Alaska
78%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from San Francisco to New York is 5 hours, 27 minutes. The time spent in the air is 4 hours, 57 minutes.

The flight distance from San Francisco to New York is 2586 Miles.

Reverse Journey

New York to San Francisco
6 hours, 23 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

JetBlue
5h 24m
Delta
5h 25m
American
5h 27m
Alaska
5h 33m
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)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0123

Flights Per Week

124

Distance

2586 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0200400

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun051015

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

Delta
43
JetBlue
31
American
26
Alaska
22

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is San Francisco from New York by plane?

The distance from San Francisco to New York by plane is 2586 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 New York?

The flight time from San Francisco to New York is 5 hours, 27 minutes. The time spent in the air is 4 hours, 57 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with JetBlue being the fastest taking 5 hours, 24 minutes, and Alaska the slowest taking 5 hours, 33 minutes.

What airlines fly from San Francisco to New York?

Alaska, JetBlue, Delta, and American are the airlines with direct flights from San Francisco to New York.

Does Southwest fly from San Francisco to New York?

Southwest does not fly from San Francisco (SFO) to New York (JFK). 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 3 minutes early
Taxi Out Time 17 minutes
In the Air 297 minutes
Taxiing In 9 minutes
Arrives New York 11 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 New York, American is 87% reliable, which means that American flights are on time 87% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
American 87% 12% 1%
JetBlue 86% 13% 1%
Delta 84% 15% 1%
Alaska 78% 21% 1%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between San Francisco and New York, 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)
JetBlue 16 298 8 324
Delta 17 294 10 325
American 16 299 10 327
Alaska 21 301 10 333

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
4pm 0.85
3pm 0.63
2pm 0.78
7am 2.05
10am 1.64
9pm 0.6
10pm 2.53
6am 1.45
8am 0.64
1pm 2.09
11am 0.93
12pm 0.95
5am 0.05
8pm 0.51
9am 1.38
11pm 0.53

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from San Francisco to New York 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 497
February 447
March 499
April 513
May 597
June 569
July 594
August 575
September 546
October 537
November 543
December 551

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from San Francisco to New York 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 18.62
Tuesday 18.08
Wednesday 18.12
Thursday 18.46
Friday 18.79
Saturday 13.92
Sunday 18.4

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
JetBlue 1
American 1
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)
4pm 15 291 8 316
3pm 15 297 9 323
2pm 16 296 9 326
7am 16 297 9 325
10am 17 301 10 331
9pm 16 292 7 318
10pm 18 295 9 325
6am 16 300 8 326
8am 17 296 9 326
1pm 19 301 12 334
11am 18 298 13 335
12pm 16 299 10 326
5am 14 303 6 327
8pm 15 295 7 320
9am 19 298 12 333
11pm 21 299 9 331
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.