Carrier performance at one airport

AA→LAX

American Airlines at Los Angeles International

Departures: 29,810
Period: September 2025 to August 2026
Routes: 25
Rank here: #6 of 10

American Airlines at Los Angeles lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 29,810 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 40,778 at 84.9% on time.

Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs 4 points behind 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.

On time

76.0%

29,270 completed departures

Avg delay

85 min

Across delayed flights only

Cancelled

1.32%

At LAX, this carrier only

Rank here

Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at LAX

These figures cover 30,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.

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.

On-time performance of all carriers departing LAX
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	9,969	80.0%	55 min	0.82%	B+
Spirit Airlines	2,730	76.4%	74 min	2.97%	B
American Airlines (this page)	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 American Airlines flies from LAX

American Airlines operates 25 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.

American Airlines routes from LAX
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
LAX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	4,528	73.7%	80 min	2.23%	C
LAX to JFK · New York	3,303	74.9%	112 min	2.66%	C
LAX to ORD · Chicago	3,091	73.9%	92 min	1.78%	C
LAX to MIA · Miami	2,761	79.2%	67 min	0.62%	B+
LAX to PHL · Philadelphia	2,328	80.0%	74 min	1.68%	B
LAX to CLT · Charlotte	2,279	82.9%	80 min	1.01%	B
LAX to PHX · Phoenix	2,047	78.5%	90 min	0.54%	B+
LAX to BOS · Boston	1,184	74.1%	94 min	1.60%	C
LAX to HNL · Honolulu	1,182	76.2%	61 min	0.00%	B+
LAX to LAS · Las Vegas	1,004	69.1%	85 min	0.70%	C+
LAX to MCO · Orlando	734	71.8%	83 min	0.27%	C+
LAX to DCA · Washington	728	80.5%	66 min	1.10%	B
LAX to OGG · Kahului	580	78.9%	77 min	0.17%	B+
LAX to IND · Indianapolis	507	73.0%	97 min	0.59%	C+
LAX to BNA · Nashville	447	74.0%	101 min	0.45%	C+
LAX to LIH · Lihue	446	75.1%	47 min	0.67%	B+
LAX to RDU · Raleigh	423	71.4%	122 min	0.47%	C+
LAX to ATL · Atlanta	376	66.5%	84 min	0.53%	C+
LAX to AUS · Austin	373	65.6%	100 min	0.54%	C+
LAX to KOA · Kailua-Konathin sample	350	74.9%	65 min	0.57%	C+
LAX to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	302	63.9%	76 min	0.00%	D+
LAX to CMH · Columbusthin sample	289	80.6%	93 min	1.73%	B
LAX to PIT · Pittsburghthin sample	279	78.8%	97 min	0.36%	B+
LAX to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	120	76.5%	71 min	0.00%	B+
LAX to CLE · Clevelandthin sample	119	84.5%	77 min	0.84%	B+

Flight by flight

American Airlines flight numbers from LAX

21 American 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 20 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.

5am–8am3,835 flights89.0%
8am–11am8,287 flights75.8%
11am–2pm4,993 flights69.5%
2pm–5pm3,714 flights69.5%
5pm–8pm2,926 flights69.6%
8pm–5am6,055 flights80.3%

Scale runs 60% to 95%.

The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 69.5% on time against 89.0% for 5am–8am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 8,287 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

Seasonal pattern

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.October best, July worst

July is the worst month at 67.1% on time, 15 points below October, the best at 81.6%. 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 2,904 flights.

Delay causes

What holds this operation up

Late-arriving aircraft
50%
Carrier
34%
National Airspace System
15%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%

50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 599,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 45 to one. The split is drawn from 599,059 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.32% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.49%.

9.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.

29,810 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.

Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. October runs 81.6% on time and July 67.1%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 29,270 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Common questions

American Airlines at LAX

How often is American Airlines at LAX delayed?

About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.0% of the 29,810 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.

Which airline is most reliable on American 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 American Airlines at LAX?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.0% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 69.5%, 20 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 American Airlines at LAX?

July is the weakest month at 67.1% on time, compared with 81.6% in October. Across the year that is 15 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated 22 October 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures