I'm going to disgree with both.

SFO has weather delays year-round due to fog. In the last month, SFO has had 7-10 days of fog delays. The fog generally directly effects flights between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., and then scheduling is usually back on track by 5 p.m. Winter storms add increased possibility of delays. The high has been holding together keeping storms out so far, but that could be changing this week.

I also think 2 hours is cutting it close, even if you have no delays.

Just an FYI - during fog and rainstorms runways are not closed at SFO, rather during good visibility pilots can do side-by-side visual approaches. When the weather is bad and visuals are not permitted, they must do off-set IFRs, which reduces operations by 15-32 per hour. In good weather 60 airplanes an hour can land, in bad weather it ranges from 28 to 45, depending on when the pilots can sight the runways.

During winter storms, when the wind shifts to a southerly or southeasterly, different runways come into use. The arrival patterns are changed and, with three airports being in close proximity, it doesn't work smoothly. You are also then using the same runways for departures and arrivals and the arrival rate becomes very low.

... and that's probably way more than you wanted to know about operations at SFO.

[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 01-07-2001).]