San Francisco International Airport halted arrivals Saturday evening after severe thunderstorms made safe landings impossible, triggering a ground stop around 5:19 p.m. Pacific time that lasted more than an hour. By late Saturday night, more than 300 flights were delayed and dozens were canceled as heavy rain, lightning and gusty winds swept across the airport.
The disruption hit at the start of Easter weekend, when airports are already crowded and delay chains spread fast. Average holds climbed toward 90 minutes at the worst point, and some passengers said they sat through delays of more than two and a half hours. Travelers connecting through SFO reported missed connections and rebookings onto flights days later, while real-time tracking data showed the ripple effects reaching flights tied to Denver, Seattle and Los Angeles.
SFO can handle about 60 arrivals an hour in clear weather, but that falls to under 40 when conditions turn marginal, especially at an airport built around closely spaced parallel runways that lose capacity in low visibility and storms. Airlines including United, American, Southwest, Delta and several international carriers were caught in the slowdown, and the Federal Aviation Administration uses ground delay programs and full ground stops when weather cuts too deeply into safety margins around approach corridors.
Meteorologists said the spring system that moved through the Bay Area carried embedded thunderstorms within broader rain bands, which is why the airport could not keep up with normal traffic. The immediate question now is how quickly schedules recover, especially with more holiday travel ahead and the airport facing upcoming operational changes tied to FAA talks over restrictions on simultaneous parallel operations.