Carrier performance at one airport
WN→LGB
Southwest Airlines at Long Beach Airport
- Departures
- 13,842
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 18
- Rank here
- #4 of 4
Southwest Airlines at Long Beach earns a A+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 8 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs roughly 50 minutes. That rests on 13,842 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 652 at 93.7% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs half a point behind the 85.6% 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
85.0%
13,766 completed departures
Avg delay
52 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 14,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 9 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 93.7% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 85.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 13,842 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 652 | 93.7% | 86 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 428 | 92.7% | 45 min | 0.70% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 437 | 85.9% | 87 min | 0.69% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 13,842 | 85.0% | 52 min | 0.37% | A+ |
SkyWest leads Southwest by 9 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 18 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 | 2,188 | 81.3% | 53 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| LGB to SMF · Sacramento | 1,917 | 88.3% | 52 min | 0.42% | A+ |
| LGB to OAK · Oakland | 1,649 | 89.8% | 45 min | 0.36% | A+ |
| LGB to PHX · Phoenix | 1,536 | 82.3% | 52 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| LGB to SJC · San Jose | 1,222 | 87.0% | 55 min | 0.33% | A+ |
| LGB to DEN · Denver | 1,014 | 81.3% | 64 min | 0.30% | B+ |
| LGB to RNO · Reno | 704 | 84.3% | 57 min | 0.43% | B+ |
| LGB to DAL · Dallas | 562 | 85.0% | 63 min | 0.71% | A+ |
| LGB to HOU · Houston | 503 | 79.3% | 41 min | 0.20% | B+ |
| LGB to AUS · Austin | 470 | 81.0% | 48 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| LGB to SLC · Salt Lake City | 451 | 87.9% | 52 min | 0.22% | A+ |
| LGB to HNL · Honolulu | 365 | 91.0% | 50 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| LGB to BNA · Nashville | 365 | 89.0% | 61 min | 0.27% | A+ |
| LGB to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 292 | 84.7% | 34 min | 0.68% | B+ |
| LGB to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 185 | 85.9% | 49 min | 0.54% | A+ |
| LGB to ABQ · Albuquerquethin sample | 157 | 81.4% | 52 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| LGB to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 145 | 88.3% | 36 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| LGB to ELP · El Pasothin sample | 98 | 85.6% | 44 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 19 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,734 flights94.3%
- 8am–11am4,106 flights91.6%
- 11am–2pm2,603 flights84.9%
- 2pm–5pm2,730 flights75.8%
- 5pm–8pm2,165 flights78.8%
- 8pm–5am504 flights76.7%
Scale runs 65% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.3% of the time, against 75.8% for the afternoon window. That is 19 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
Delays peak in November, when the on-time rate falls to 80.3%. January is the strongest month at 90.9%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 11 points.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 63%Late-arriving aircraft
- 20%National Airspace System
- 15%Carrier
- 2%Extreme weather
63% 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 108,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 31 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 are rare at 0.37%, below the national 1.80% 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 4.0% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% 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.
13,842 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 November 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 19 points, which is the most any booking decision can do.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at LGB
How often is Southwest Airlines at LGB delayed?
About one flight in seven arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 15.0% of the 13,842 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at LGB?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 93.7% on time across 652 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 85.0%, a gap of 9 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 94.3% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 75.8%, 19 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 November delays on Southwest Airlines at LGB?
November is the weakest month at 80.3% on time, compared with 90.9% in January. 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.