The flight time from San Francisco to Seattle is 2 hours, 7 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves SFO San Francisco, CA 3 minutes early.
18 minutes taxiing out
1 hour, 36 minutes in the air
10 minutes taxiing in
Arrives SEA Seattle, WA 9 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

Delta
88%
Alaska
84%
United
82%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from San Francisco to Seattle is 2 hours, 7 minutes. The time spent in the air is 1 hour, 36 minutes.

The flight distance from San Francisco to Seattle is 679 Miles.

Reverse Journey

Seattle to San Francisco
2 hours, 7 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

Delta
2h 5m
Alaska
2h 8m
United
2h 8m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM 30m1h1h 30m2h
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0123

Flights Per Week

128

Distance

679 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND0200400600

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun05101520

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

Alaska
62
Delta
34
United
32

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is San Francisco from Seattle by plane?

The distance from San Francisco to Seattle by plane is 679 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 Seattle?

The flight time from San Francisco to Seattle is 2 hours, 7 minutes. The time spent in the air is 1 hour, 36 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with Delta being the fastest taking 2 hours, 5 minutes, and Alaska the slowest taking 2 hours, 8 minutes.

What airlines fly from San Francisco to Seattle?

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

Does Southwest fly from San Francisco to Seattle?

Southwest does not fly from San Francisco (SFO) to Seattle (SEA). 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 96 minutes
Taxiing In 10 minutes
Arrives Seattle 9 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 Seattle, Alaska is 84% reliable, which means that Alaska flights are on time 84% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
Delta 88% 11% 1%
Alaska 84% 15% 1%
United 82% 17% 1%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between San Francisco and Seattle, 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 15 97 10 125
Alaska 19 96 10 128
United 20 96 9 128

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
5pm 0.94
4pm 2.4
6pm 0.48
6am 1.82
5am 0.05
7am 0.58
2pm 0.74
9pm 0.94
10am 1.47
3pm 0.39
7pm 1.7
8am 0.64
12pm 1.43
11pm 0.07
1pm 0.83
11am 0.87
9am 1.22
8pm 1.2
10pm 0.44

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from San Francisco to Seattle 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 551
February 493
March 543
April 541
May 584
June 610
July 611
August 616
September 566
October 515
November 525
December 542

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from San Francisco to Seattle 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 19.29
Tuesday 18.42
Wednesday 18.58
Thursday 19.38
Friday 19.04
Saturday 15.58
Sunday 18.5

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
Alaska 1
Delta 1
United 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)
5pm 18 96 9 124
4pm 18 97 9 127
6pm 20 97 9 128
6am 18 96 11 128
5am 15 95 14 125
7am 17 96 10 126
2pm 17 96 8 124
9pm 18 93 9 124
10am 15 97 10 125
3pm 18 94 9 126
7pm 19 97 11 131
8am 21 99 9 133
12pm 18 98 8 127
11pm 31 92 6 131
1pm 18 95 9 126
11am 23 94 10 128
9am 21 96 11 131
8pm 16 97 10 125
10pm 24 91 6 123
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.