San Francisco International Airport Ranked Most Unreliable Amid Memorial Day Travel

According to a recent report from JW Surety Bonds, San Francisco International Airport is the worst major airport for travel this Memorial Day Weekend. The report used data from the Department of Transportation from 2015 to 2023.

A chaotic weekend

Memorial Day Weekend is one of the year’s busiest weekends in the United States. It is the unofficial start to summer, and millions of people travel to take advantage of the long weekend. This year, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is the worst major airport to transit through during the busy weekend.

This is according to a study by JW Surety Bonds, which collected data from the United States Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report. The company specifically analyzed Memorial Day Weekend travel from 2015 to 2023. Looking at the on-time performance of 406 US airports, it was determined that SFO is the worst for travel and will have the highest number of delays.

Photo: United Airlines

Over the years, SFO has historically had the highest number of delays, with 27.8%. SFO was closely followed by Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) with 23.7% and Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) with 22.6%.

This year, Memorial Day Weekend is expected to be the busiest in nearly two decades, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). AAA estimates that almost 44 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home between Thursday and Monday. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is bracing for significant airport traffic and estimates three million people could pass through airport security checkpoints today.

Today’s operations at SFO

According to data from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, 946 roundtrip flights are scheduled to and from SFO today. Over 173,000 seats are available on all the flights, with the total available seat miles at 462,282,560. United Airlines is by far the busiest airline at the airport, as SFO is its largest West Coast base and the most important gateway to Asia.

More than 43% of today’s flights at SFO are United Airlines flights. The Chicago-based airline has 410 roundtrip operations scheduled and a seat offering of 77,032, an average of 187.9 seats per departure.

Alaska Airlines, which has a base at SFO, is the airline with the second-largest market share. Its operations are nearly 75% smaller than United’s, with just 135 flights and 18,134 seats. Delta Air Lines has 84 flights and 13,791 seats, offering a higher seat per departure than Alaska, 164.2 compared to 134.3.

American Airlines falls just short of Delta, with 84 flights and nearly 11,500 seats available. American’s busiest route is to its home at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, with 17 flights (in both directions) on the 1,464-mile route. Its shortest flight is to Los Angeles International Airport, the airline’s only remaining hub in California.

Despite being one of the busiest in California, Southwest Airlines does not have a significant operation at SFO. Data shows that the airline only has 42 roundtrip flights today, offering nearly 6,500 seats. Southwest focuses its bay operations at San Jose Mineta International Airport (SJC) and Oakland International Airport (OAK).

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