Carrier performance at one airport
AS→LAX
Alaska Airlines at Los Angeles International
- Departures
- 9,969
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 13
- Rank here
- #4 of 10
Alaska Airlines at Los Angeles lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 55 minutes on average. That rests on 9,969 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 40,778 at 84.9% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Alaska Airlines runs half a point ahead of the 79.5% weighted average across all carriers at LAX. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
80.0%
9,867 completed departures
Avg delay
55 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.82%
At LAX, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at LAX
These figures cover 9,969 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Against the competition
Every carrier at LAX, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 84.9% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 72.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 25,511 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 40,778 | 84.9% | 70 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 29,614 | 82.5% | 62 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 37,561 | 80.9% | 68 min | 1.16% | B |
| Alaska Airlines (this page) | 9,969 | 80.0% | 55 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,730 | 76.4% | 74 min | 2.97% | B |
| American Airlines | 29,810 | 76.0% | 85 min | 1.32% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 7,733 | 75.7% | 68 min | 2.66% | B |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 643 | 74.0% | 87 min | 1.24% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 5,699 | 73.6% | 78 min | 1.67% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 25,511 | 72.3% | 50 min | 0.54% | C+ |
The spread between SkyWest and Southwest is 13 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 13 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Where Alaska Airlines flies from LAX
Alaska Airlines operates 13 routes out of LAX with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAX to SEA · Seattle | 3,292 | 85.2% | 52 min | 0.88% | A+ |
| LAX to PDX · Portland | 1,818 | 89.8% | 51 min | 0.50% | A+ |
| LAX to HNL · Honolulu | 1,054 | 65.9% | 67 min | 1.23% | C |
| LAX to SFO · San Francisco | 1,049 | 50.9% | 54 min | 0.67% | F+ |
| LAX to EWR · Newark | 490 | 91.6% | 58 min | 1.63% | A |
| LAX to ANC · Anchorage | 399 | 88.2% | 43 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| LAX to OGG · Kahului | 376 | 73.9% | 45 min | 1.06% | C |
| LAX to KOA · Kailua-Kona | 374 | 78.7% | 37 min | 1.07% | B |
| LAX to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 364 | 78.2% | 68 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| LAX to LIH · Lihuethin sample | 272 | 76.5% | 46 min | 1.10% | B |
| LAX to GEG · Spokanethin sample | 203 | 93.1% | 81 min | 0.49% | A+ |
| LAX to EUG · Eugenethin sample | 113 | 92.9% | 63 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| LAX to BOI · Boisethin sample | 31 | 93.5% | 109 min | 0.00% | A+ |
Flight by flight
Alaska Airlines flight numbers from LAX
10 Alaska Airlines flight numbers leaving LAX flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 18 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,577 flights89.9%
- 8am–11am2,535 flights72.1%
- 11am–2pm1,246 flights75.7%
- 2pm–5pm1,317 flights83.0%
- 5pm–8pm1,914 flights81.4%
- 8pm–5am1,380 flights82.0%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.9% of the time, against 72.1% for the morning window. That is 18 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 2,535 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 70.4% on time, 23 points below September, the best at 93.1%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. July was the busiest month here, with 1,054 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 38%Carrier
- 35%National Airspace System
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
35% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 38,000 minutes out of 108,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 108,479 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.82%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
5.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 9,969 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 93.1% on time and July 70.4%, a swing of 23 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 9,867 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Alaska Airlines at LAX
How often is Alaska Airlines at LAX delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 20.0% of the 9,969 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Alaska Airlines at LAX?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 84.9% on time across 40,778 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 72.3%, a gap of 13 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on Alaska Airlines at LAX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.9% on time. The 8am–11am window is the weakest at 72.1%, 18 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on Alaska Airlines at LAX?
July is the weakest month at 70.4% on time, compared with 93.1% in September. Across the year that is 23 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- Alaska Airlines network-wide record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) all carriers
- LAX to SEA route record85.2%
- LAX to PDX route record89.8%
- LAX to HNL route record65.9%
- LAX to SFO route record50.9%
- Do airlines run better at their own hubs?
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.