Carrier performance at one airport
AA→LAX
American Airlines at Los Angeles International
- Departures
- 29,641
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #9 of 11
American Airlines at Los Angeles lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 29,641 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 40,411 at 85.5% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs 4 points behind the 80.5% 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
76.3%
29,131 completed departures
Avg delay
87 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.31%
At LAX, this carrier only
Rank here
#9
Of 11 carriers clearing the floor at LAX
These figures cover 30,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at LAX, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 85.5% of the time; Hawaiian Airlines manages 70.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,175 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 40,411 | 85.5% | 73 min | 0.64% | A+ |
| United Airlines | 28,958 | 83.2% | 64 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 8,948 | 82.4% | 55 min | 1.03% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 37,232 | 81.3% | 68 min | 1.08% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 4,592 | 79.4% | 75 min | 2.09% | B |
| Allegiant Air | 372 | 77.1% | 105 min | 0.27% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 25,180 | 76.8% | 49 min | 0.52% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 7,717 | 76.4% | 73 min | 1.72% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 29,641 | 76.3% | 87 min | 1.31% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 5,434 | 70.3% | 83 min | 1.77% | C |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 1,175 | 70.0% | 71 min | 0.77% | C+ |
The spread between SkyWest and Hawaiian is 16 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 16 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.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 4,564 | 73.1% | 94 min | 2.30% | C |
| LAX to JFK · New York | 3,242 | 76.8% | 113 min | 2.04% | B |
| LAX to ORD · Chicago | 3,039 | 73.2% | 94 min | 2.27% | C |
| LAX to MIA · Miami | 2,755 | 78.7% | 70 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| LAX to CLT · Charlotte | 2,329 | 81.5% | 82 min | 1.12% | B |
| LAX to PHL · Philadelphia | 2,312 | 79.7% | 80 min | 1.56% | B |
| LAX to PHX · Phoenix | 2,020 | 79.7% | 91 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| LAX to HNL · Honolulu | 1,179 | 75.5% | 54 min | 0.17% | B+ |
| LAX to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,106 | 68.4% | 90 min | 0.72% | C+ |
| LAX to BOS · Boston | 1,094 | 76.5% | 81 min | 1.28% | B |
| LAX to DCA · Washington | 730 | 81.9% | 68 min | 1.23% | B |
| LAX to MCO · Orlando | 706 | 75.6% | 71 min | 0.28% | B+ |
| LAX to OGG · Kahului | 576 | 80.3% | 76 min | 0.17% | B+ |
| LAX to AUS · Austin | 538 | 71.9% | 95 min | 1.12% | C |
| LAX to IND · Indianapolis | 442 | 74.9% | 92 min | 0.68% | C+ |
| LAX to RDU · Raleigh | 419 | 78.2% | 104 min | 0.48% | B+ |
| LAX to BNA · Nashville | 385 | 76.1% | 113 min | 0.78% | B+ |
| LAX to ATL · Atlanta | 379 | 67.3% | 90 min | 0.53% | C+ |
| LAX to SFO · San Francisco | 374 | 62.9% | 71 min | 0.27% | D+ |
| LAX to LIH · Lihuethin sample | 361 | 79.1% | 48 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| LAX to KOA · Kailua-Konathin sample | 350 | 77.2% | 62 min | 0.29% | B+ |
| LAX to CMH · Columbusthin sample | 306 | 79.7% | 96 min | 1.63% | B |
| LAX to PIT · Pittsburghthin sample | 301 | 77.7% | 89 min | 0.33% | B+ |
| LAX to IAD · Washingtonthin sample | 55 | 72.7% | 90 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| LAX to CLE · Clevelandthin sample | 55 | 88.7% | 47 min | 0.00% | A+ |
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 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am3,937 flights88.3%
- 8am–11am8,282 flights76.2%
- 11am–2pm4,856 flights69.9%
- 2pm–5pm3,815 flights69.9%
- 5pm–8pm2,840 flights70.3%
- 8pm–5am5,911 flights80.7%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 69.9% on time against 88.3% 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.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 69.7% on time, 12 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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 49%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
49% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 603,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 49 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit.
Cancellations sit at 1.31% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.41%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
29,641 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: take the 5am–8am departure, avoid July if the dates are flexible, and if two carriers are within a few dollars of each other, SkyWest is the one with the record behind it. None of that guarantees an on-time arrival; it moves the odds by 18 points, which is the most any booking decision can do.
Common questions
American Airlines at LAX
How often is American Airlines at LAX delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.7% of the 29,641 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% 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 85.5% on time across 40,411 flights. Hawaiian Airlines is at the other end on 70.0%, a gap of 16 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 88.3% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 69.9%, 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 American Airlines at LAX?
July is the weakest month at 69.7% on time, compared with 81.6% in October. Across the year that is 12 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
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.