Carrier performance at one airport
DL→LAX
Delta Air Lines at Los Angeles International
- Departures
- 37,232
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #4 of 11
Delta Air Lines at Los Angeles lands a B, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 37,232 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 40,411 at 85.5% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs about a point ahead of 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
81.3%
36,732 completed departures
Avg delay
68 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.08%
At LAX, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 11 carriers clearing the floor at LAX
These figures cover 37,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 8 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 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 (this page) | 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 | 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 Delta Air Lines flies from LAX
Delta Air Lines 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 ATL · Atlanta | 3,871 | 79.7% | 64 min | 0.96% | B+ |
| LAX to JFK · New York | 3,356 | 80.9% | 92 min | 1.79% | B |
| LAX to SLC · Salt Lake City | 2,451 | 88.6% | 79 min | 0.45% | A+ |
| LAX to SFO · San Francisco | 2,375 | 67.6% | 54 min | 1.52% | C |
| LAX to SEA · Seattle | 2,222 | 87.3% | 75 min | 0.72% | A+ |
| LAX to MSP · Minneapolis | 2,177 | 85.4% | 56 min | 0.78% | A+ |
| LAX to DTW · Detroit | 1,999 | 83.2% | 61 min | 0.85% | B+ |
| LAX to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,736 | 77.9% | 60 min | 0.75% | B+ |
| LAX to PDX · Portland | 1,691 | 86.4% | 77 min | 0.89% | A+ |
| LAX to MCO · Orlando | 1,378 | 76.0% | 63 min | 1.09% | B |
| LAX to AUS · Austin | 1,286 | 81.5% | 74 min | 1.09% | B |
| LAX to BOS · Boston | 1,226 | 78.9% | 85 min | 1.63% | B |
| LAX to HNL · Honolulu | 1,095 | 80.4% | 71 min | 0.37% | B+ |
| LAX to MSY · New Orleans | 968 | 82.5% | 72 min | 0.41% | B+ |
| LAX to BNA · Nashville | 908 | 84.9% | 62 min | 1.76% | B |
| LAX to DEN · Denver | 744 | 78.5% | 75 min | 1.34% | B |
| LAX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 718 | 83.5% | 71 min | 1.81% | B |
| LAX to SAT · San Antonio | 688 | 83.5% | 79 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| LAX to TPA · Tampa | 661 | 77.3% | 54 min | 1.51% | B |
| LAX to IAH · Houston | 646 | 86.9% | 79 min | 1.24% | A |
| LAX to MCI · Kansas City | 621 | 88.1% | 74 min | 0.97% | A+ |
| LAX to OGG · Kahului | 507 | 85.1% | 65 min | 0.79% | A+ |
| LAX to MIA · Miami | 494 | 73.0% | 53 min | 1.21% | C |
| LAX to RDU · Raleigh | 389 | 79.2% | 49 min | 0.77% | B+ |
| LAX to KOA · Kailua-Kona | 365 | 82.5% | 57 min | 1.37% | B |
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 12 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am6,058 flights90.3%
- 8am–11am8,611 flights82.2%
- 11am–2pm5,939 flights78.7%
- 2pm–5pm5,255 flights78.0%
- 5pm–8pm4,857 flights79.3%
- 8pm–5am6,512 flights78.5%
Scale runs 70% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.3% of the time, against 78.0% for the afternoon window. That is 12 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 76.8% on time, 11 points below September, the best at 87.5%. 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
- 54%Carrier
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 19%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 54%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 252,000 of the 465,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.08% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.26%.
6.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the about an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
37,232 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 June 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 16 points, which is the most any booking decision can do.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at LAX
How often is Delta Air Lines at LAX delayed?
About one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 18.7% of the 37,232 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Delta Air Lines 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 Delta Air Lines at LAX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.3% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 78.0%, 12 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 June delays on Delta Air Lines at LAX?
June is the weakest month at 76.8% on time, compared with 87.5% in September. Across the year that is 11 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.