The flight time from San Francisco to San Diego is 1 hour, 31 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves SFO San Francisco, CA 2 minutes early.
17 minutes taxiing out
1 hour, 9 minutes in the air
3 minutes taxiing in
Arrives SAN San Diego, CA 3 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

United
85%
Alaska
79%
Southwest
72%
Frontier
38%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from San Francisco to San Diego is 1 hour, 31 minutes. The time spent in the air is 1 hour, 9 minutes.

The flight distance from San Francisco to San Diego is 447 Miles.

Reverse Journey

San Diego to San Francisco
1 hour, 35 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

Southwest
1h 23m
United
1h 32m
Alaska
1h 34m
Frontier
1h 37m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM 30m1h1h 30m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0.00.51.01.52.0

Flights Per Week

117

Distance

447 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0200400

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun051015

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

Alaska
46
United
39
Southwest
29
Frontier
2

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is San Francisco from San Diego by plane?

The distance from San Francisco to San Diego by plane is 447 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 San Diego?

The flight time from San Francisco to San Diego is 1 hour, 31 minutes. The time spent in the air is 1 hour, 9 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with Southwest being the fastest taking 1 hour, 23 minutes, and Frontier the slowest taking 1 hour, 37 minutes.

What airlines fly from San Francisco to San Diego?

Alaska, Southwest, United, and Frontier are the airlines with direct flights from San Francisco to San Diego.

Does Southwest fly from San Francisco to San Diego?

Yes! Southwest does fly from San Francisco (SFO) to San Diego (SAN). On average, they have 29 flights per week on this route. This may vary seasonally, please check the chart above for more details.

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 17 minutes
In the Air 69 minutes
Taxiing In 3 minutes
Arrives San Diego 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 San Francisco to San Diego, Southwest is 72% reliable, which means that Southwest flights are on time 72% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
United 85% 13% 2%
Alaska 79% 20% 1%
Southwest 72% 27% 1%
Frontier 38% 56% 6%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between San Francisco and San Diego, 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)
Southwest 11 68 3 83
United 19 68 3 92
Alaska 18 71 4 94
Frontier 20 69 5 97

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 0.64
8am 1.66
9pm 0.29
1pm 1.44
8pm 0.63
5pm 0.56
2pm 0.58
5am 0.03
11am 1.09
6am 1.61
10am 1.17
7pm 1.38
10pm 0.51
9am 0.9
6pm 1.02
4pm 1.87
12pm 0.59
7am 0.54

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from San Francisco to San Diego 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 463
February 440
March 508
April 558
May 532
June 429
July 538
August 573
September 547
October 484
November 513
December 537

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from San Francisco to San Diego 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 17.85
Tuesday 17.19
Wednesday 17.17
Thursday 17.83
Friday 17.83
Saturday 13.35
Sunday 16.52

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
Alaska 1
United 1
Southwest 1
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)
3pm 15 69 3 89
8am 20 69 3 94
9pm 16 69 4 89
1pm 18 69 3 91
8pm 14 69 4 87
5pm 15 69 3 88
2pm 15 70 3 90
5am 9 68 3 84
11am 18 70 3 92
6am 16 69 3 89
10am 19 70 3 94
7pm 17 69 3 91
10pm 17 68 3 89
9am 17 70 4 93
6pm 17 70 4 93
4pm 18 69 3 92
12pm 15 69 3 89
7am 14 68 3 87
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.