The flight time from San Francisco to New York is 5 hours, 29 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves SFO San Francisco, CA 3 minutes early.
18 minutes taxiing out
4 hours, 59 minutes in the air
10 minutes taxiing in
Arrives JFK New York, NY 7 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

Delta
86%
American
84%
Alaska
81%
JetBlue
79%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from San Francisco to New York is 5 hours, 29 minutes. The time spent in the air is 4 hours, 59 minutes.

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

Reverse Journey

New York to San Francisco
6 hours, 19 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

Delta
5h 27m
JetBlue
5h 28m
American
5h 30m
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

142

Distance

2586 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0200400600

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun05101520

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

Delta
44
JetBlue
38
Alaska
32
American
26

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, 29 minutes. The time spent in the air is 4 hours, 59 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with Delta being the fastest taking 5 hours, 27 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 18 minutes
In the Air 299 minutes
Taxiing In 10 minutes
Arrives New York 7 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 84% reliable, which means that American flights are on time 84% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
Delta 86% 13% 1%
American 84% 15% 1%
Alaska 81% 19% 0%
JetBlue 79% 20% 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)
Delta 17 295 11 327
JetBlue 16 300 9 328
American 18 301 11 330
Alaska 20 301 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 0.3
3pm 1.18
2pm 1.2
7am 1.67
10am 2
9pm 0.77
10pm 2.54
6am 2.6
8am 0.35
1pm 2.21
11am 1.68
12pm 0.91
5am 0.02
8pm 0.34
9am 0.25
0am 0.09
11pm 1.98

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 554
February 527
March 649
April 632
May 678
June 641
July 644
August 658
September 620
October 655
November 607
December 544

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 21.12
Tuesday 20.9
Wednesday 21.1
Thursday 21.12
Friday 20.94
Saturday 16.17
Sunday 21.13

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
Alaska 1
American 1

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 15 297 9 326
3pm 15 294 10 321
2pm 17 298 11 330
7am 17 300 10 329
10am 17 304 11 335
9pm 16 292 8 317
10pm 18 297 9 325
6am 18 301 9 329
8am 16 290 10 319
1pm 19 302 13 337
11am 21 300 12 336
12pm 16 299 12 332
5am 20 301 7 326
8pm 16 292 8 317
9am 17 300 12 333
0am 12 302 9 323
11pm 20 298 9 328
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.