Carrier performance at one airport
WN→LGB
Southwest Airlines at Long Beach Airport
- Departures
- 13,115
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 17
- Rank here
- #4 of 4
Southwest Airlines at Long Beach earns a B+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 7 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about 50 minutes. That rests on 13,115 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 560 at 92.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs half a point behind the 84.6% weighted average across all carriers at LGB. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
84.0%
13,039 completed departures
Avg delay
50 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.37%
At LGB, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 4 carriers clearing the floor at LGB
These figures cover 13,000 flights between September 2025 and August 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 LGB, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 92.1% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 84.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 13,115 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 560 | 92.1% | 91 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 486 | 88.4% | 91 min | 0.62% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 529 | 88.3% | 90 min | 1.13% | A |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 13,115 | 84.0% | 50 min | 0.37% | B+ |
SkyWest leads Southwest by 8 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Route by route
Where Southwest Airlines flies from LGB
Southwest Airlines operates 17 routes out of LGB 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LGB to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,087 | 80.4% | 53 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| LGB to SMF · Sacramento | 1,852 | 86.8% | 47 min | 0.43% | A+ |
| LGB to OAK · Oakland | 1,568 | 88.5% | 45 min | 0.45% | A+ |
| LGB to PHX · Phoenix | 1,515 | 80.0% | 50 min | 0.33% | B+ |
| LGB to SJC · San Jose | 1,251 | 86.0% | 47 min | 0.24% | A+ |
| LGB to DEN · Denver | 1,007 | 82.0% | 61 min | 0.10% | B+ |
| LGB to RNO · Reno | 687 | 84.8% | 56 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| LGB to DAL · Dallas | 484 | 84.8% | 48 min | 0.83% | B+ |
| LGB to SLC · Salt Lake City | 480 | 85.1% | 51 min | 0.21% | A+ |
| LGB to HOU · Houston | 440 | 77.3% | 38 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| LGB to AUS · Austin | 412 | 82.0% | 48 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| LGB to BNA · Nashville | 365 | 88.5% | 50 min | 0.27% | A+ |
| LGB to HNL · Honolulu | 365 | 92.1% | 62 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| LGB to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 283 | 81.8% | 35 min | 1.06% | B |
| LGB to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 98 | 86.6% | 56 min | 1.02% | A |
| LGB to ABQ · Albuquerquethin sample | 78 | 83.3% | 51 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| LGB to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 57 | 87.7% | 29 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 25 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,752 flights94.8%
- 8am–11am3,959 flights91.1%
- 11am–2pm2,387 flights83.9%
- 2pm–5pm2,483 flights72.9%
- 5pm–8pm2,008 flights78.3%
- 8pm–5am526 flights70.2%
Scale runs 60% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.8% of the time, against 70.2% for the overnight window. That is 25 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 3,959 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 78.4% on time, 13 points below January, the best at 90.9%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 1,242 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 63%Late-arriving aircraft
- 20%National Airspace System
- 15%Carrier
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
63% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 104,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 33 to one. The split is drawn from 103,919 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.37%, 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.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.1% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
13,115 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. January runs 90.9% on time and June 78.4%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 13,039 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at LGB
How often is Southwest Airlines at LGB delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 16.0% of the 13,115 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 50 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at LGB?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 92.1% on time across 560 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 84.0%, a gap of 8 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 Southwest Airlines at LGB?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 94.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 70.2%, 25 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 Southwest Airlines at LGB?
June is the weakest month at 78.4% on time, compared with 90.9% in January. Across the year that is 13 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.