Carrier performance at one airport
WN→LGB
Southwest Airlines at Long Beach Airport
- Departures
- 13,573
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 18
- 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 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs roughly 50 minutes. That rests on 13,573 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 622 at 93.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs half a point behind the 85.3% 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
84.7%
13,498 completed departures
Avg delay
52 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.35%
At LGB, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 4 carriers clearing the floor at LGB
These figures cover 14,000 flights between July 2025 and June 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 93.1% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 84.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 13,573 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 622 | 93.1% | 87 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 368 | 92.1% | 47 min | 0.82% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 467 | 86.6% | 90 min | 0.86% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 13,573 | 84.7% | 52 min | 0.35% | 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 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 | 2,150 | 81.3% | 52 min | 0.47% | B+ |
| LGB to SMF · Sacramento | 1,893 | 87.7% | 50 min | 0.32% | A+ |
| LGB to OAK · Oakland | 1,623 | 89.4% | 45 min | 0.31% | A+ |
| LGB to PHX · Phoenix | 1,527 | 81.6% | 51 min | 0.39% | B+ |
| LGB to SJC · San Jose | 1,229 | 86.7% | 53 min | 0.33% | A+ |
| LGB to DEN · Denver | 1,012 | 81.8% | 65 min | 0.20% | B+ |
| LGB to RNO · Reno | 698 | 83.5% | 56 min | 0.43% | B+ |
| LGB to DAL · Dallas | 536 | 85.0% | 61 min | 0.75% | A+ |
| LGB to HOU · Houston | 484 | 78.1% | 41 min | 0.21% | B+ |
| LGB to SLC · Salt Lake City | 463 | 86.3% | 50 min | 0.22% | A+ |
| LGB to AUS · Austin | 451 | 81.3% | 51 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| LGB to HNL · Honolulu | 365 | 91.0% | 57 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| LGB to BNA · Nashville | 365 | 88.7% | 59 min | 0.27% | A+ |
| LGB to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 288 | 83.9% | 34 min | 1.04% | B |
| LGB to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 159 | 84.8% | 51 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| LGB to ABQ · Albuquerquethin sample | 127 | 84.1% | 57 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| LGB to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 115 | 87.8% | 36 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| LGB to ELP · El Pasothin sample | 70 | 87.1% | 56 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 22 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,734 flights94.7%
- 8am–11am4,070 flights91.3%
- 11am–2pm2,519 flights84.8%
- 2pm–5pm2,623 flights75.0%
- 5pm–8pm2,103 flights78.5%
- 8pm–5am524 flights73.2%
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 94.7% of the time, against 73.2% for the overnight window. That is 22 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 4,070 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. July was the busiest month here, with 1,319 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 63%Late-arriving aircraft
- 19%National Airspace System
- 16%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. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 107,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 28 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. The split is drawn from 107,176 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.35%, below the national 1.81% 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 8.1% 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.
13,573 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. 13,498 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 seven arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 15.3% of the 13,573 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% 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 93.1% on time across 622 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 84.7%, 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 94.7% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 73.2%, 22 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.