{"id":252252,"date":"2026-07-16T21:44:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/16\/1-in-3-sfo-flights-arrived-late-in-june-relief-could-be-in-sight-the-points-guy\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T21:44:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:44:21","slug":"1-in-3-sfo-flights-arrived-late-in-june-relief-could-be-in-sight-the-points-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/16\/1-in-3-sfo-flights-arrived-late-in-june-relief-could-be-in-sight-the-points-guy\/","title":{"rendered":"1 in 3 SFO flights arrived late in June. Relief could be in sight – The Points Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Things are about to get a lot better at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), United Airlines said Thursday, following a messy few months of flight delays.<\/p>\n

Since April, travelers have run into a host of backups when flying into the Bay Area hub, owing to runway construction and new flight restrictions<\/a><\/span> imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration.<\/p>\n

Last month, one out of every three flights into San Francisco got to the gate at least 15 minutes late, according to data shared Thursday by aviation analytics firm Cirium.<\/p>\n

Over the past three months, the rate of significant flight delays into SFO was up 60% versus the first three months of the year, Cirium data showed.<\/p>\n

Flight delayed or canceled? Here’s what to do next<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Why are flight delays so bad at SFO?<\/h2>\n

These travel woes had been expected<\/a><\/span> entering the summer travel rush.<\/p>\n

The airport’s two north-south runways are being currently being repaved, and are scheduled to be out of service until the fall.<\/p>\n

On top of that, the FAA in late March issued a safety measure that banned the famous side-by-side landings on SFO’s parallel runways, reducing the number of flights that could land in a given hour.<\/p>\n

The move has tied up air traffic into the airport, often leaving planes in holding patterns and causing travelers to risk missing connections.<\/p>\n

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Last month, my Alaska Airlines flight from San Diego International Airport (SAN) had to hold before takeoff because of an FAA-imposed ground delay program at SFO.<\/p>\n

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\"Alaska<\/div>
TAYFUN COSKUN\/ANADOLU AGENCY\/GETTY IMAGES<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

United: Relief coming<\/h2>\n

However, there may be improvements in sight, according to United, which is the dominant No. 1 carrier at SFO.<\/p>\n

The airline on Thursday said it’s worked “hand-in-hand” with the FAA on a “new approach” that would increase the number of planes that could land each hour at SFO.<\/p>\n

“I’m not 100% sure yet that we can get back to 100% where we were, but we should see improvements in landing rates in San Francisco over the next to to three weeks,” United chief operating officer Toby Enqvist told analysts.<\/p>\n

Sneak peek: United is planning large outdoor terrace for its new SFO lounge<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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United Airlines Boeing 737-800 at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). SEAN CUDAHY\/THE POINTS GUY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The FAA did not immediately respond to TPG’s request for comments on the nature of the talks.<\/p>\n

But any improvement would certainly be welcome news for flyers.<\/p>\n

On Monday, 45% of flights headed to SFO were delayed, FlightAware showed. 40% were delayed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

By Thursday afternoon, the FAA reported ground delays averaging 55 minutes and counting at the airport \u2014 this on a day that was expected to rank among the season’s busiest for takeoffs and landings across the country.<\/p>\n

United CEO Scott Kirby noted the end of runway construction, expected in October, would also help improve operations in San Francisco. The work, he said, has been a “big driver” of the recent delays.<\/p>\n

Aviation insight<\/h2>\n

Even prior to this summer’s problems, the FAA had designated SFO as one of the nation’s more capacity-constrained airports.<\/p>\n

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United Airlines planes at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). SEAN CUDAHY\/THE POINTS GUY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SFO doesn’t have strictly-controlled takeoff and landing rules (known as slots) like New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) or Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).<\/p>\n

But it’s one of four other big U.S. hubs where schedules are tightly managed because of congestion.<\/p>\n

The other three? All United hubs, too: Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR).<\/p>\n

O’Hare, for its part, has also faced FAA flight restrictions this summer<\/a><\/span> amid construction and a turf war between United and American Airlines. Last week, the agency extended those limitations through October 2027.<\/p>\n

Related reading:<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Things are about to get a lot better at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), United Airlines said Thursday, following a messy few months of flight delays. Since April, travelers have run into a host of backups when flying into the Bay Area hub, owing to runway construction and new flight restrictions imposed by the Federal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":252253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-252252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}