Los Angeles, CA · departure reliability
LAX
Los Angeles International
- Departures
- 190,107
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 10
- US rank
- #6 by volume
Los Angeles
Los Angeles International lands a B+, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 190,107 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 40,778 at 84.9% on time.
SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the ten carriers covered here at 84.9% on time across 40,778 flights.
Key figures
On time
79.5%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.97%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
SkyWest
84.9% on time here
These figures cover 190,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of LAX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 84.9% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 72.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 25,511 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 40,778 | 84.9% | 70 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 37,561 | 80.9% | 68 min | 1.16% | B |
| American Airlines | 29,810 | 76.0% | 85 min | 1.32% | B |
| United Airlines | 29,614 | 82.5% | 62 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 25,511 | 72.3% | 50 min | 0.54% | C+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 9,969 | 80.0% | 55 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 7,733 | 75.7% | 68 min | 2.66% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 5,699 | 73.6% | 78 min | 1.67% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,730 | 76.4% | 74 min | 2.97% | B |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 643 | 74.0% | 87 min | 1.24% | C |
The spread between SkyWest and Southwest is 13 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 13 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of LAX
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from LAX, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 79.5%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAX to SFO · San Francisco | 11,437 | 60.1% | 57 min | 0.80% | D+ |
| LAX to JFK · New York | 10,289 | 77.5% | 90 min | 2.90% | B |
| LAX to LAS · Las Vegas | 8,202 | 75.8% | 63 min | 0.77% | B+ |
| LAX to DEN · Denver | 7,709 | 81.6% | 68 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| LAX to PHX · Phoenix | 7,623 | 80.3% | 68 min | 0.77% | B+ |
| LAX to SEA · Seattle | 7,534 | 85.0% | 62 min | 0.84% | A+ |
| LAX to ORD · Chicago | 7,119 | 76.4% | 84 min | 1.39% | B |
| LAX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 6,178 | 74.9% | 79 min | 2.22% | C |
| LAX to SMF · Sacramento | 5,708 | 84.8% | 65 min | 0.39% | B+ |
| LAX to HNL · Honolulu | 5,540 | 76.2% | 73 min | 0.51% | B+ |
| LAX to IAH · Houston | 5,143 | 84.6% | 61 min | 0.47% | B+ |
| LAX to ATL · Atlanta | 4,843 | 78.6% | 68 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| LAX to BOS · Boston | 4,797 | 76.2% | 80 min | 1.81% | B |
| LAX to EWR · Newark | 4,748 | 79.1% | 75 min | 2.11% | B |
| LAX to SJC · San Jose | 4,471 | 85.6% | 53 min | 0.96% | A+ |
| LAX to PDX · Portland | 4,289 | 86.8% | 68 min | 0.61% | A+ |
| LAX to SLC · Salt Lake City | 4,195 | 87.2% | 72 min | 0.50% | A+ |
| LAX to AUS · Austin | 4,077 | 77.0% | 62 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| LAX to MCO · Orlando | 3,515 | 76.6% | 66 min | 0.68% | B+ |
| LAX to MIA · Miami | 3,256 | 78.4% | 65 min | 0.77% | B+ |
| LAX to TUS · Tucson | 2,619 | 79.7% | 73 min | 0.38% | B+ |
| LAX to RNO · Reno | 2,470 | 89.1% | 56 min | 0.40% | A+ |
| LAX to IAD · Washington | 2,461 | 87.5% | 56 min | 0.53% | A+ |
| LAX to SAN · San Diego | 2,452 | 83.2% | 60 min | 0.94% | B+ |
| LAX to PHL · Philadelphia | 2,372 | 79.6% | 73 min | 1.64% | B |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave LAX
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 14 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am23,329 flights90.1%
- 8am–11am47,788 flights81.4%
- 11am–2pm30,673 flights76.0%
- 2pm–5pm27,250 flights76.0%
- 5pm–8pm26,950 flights76.4%
- 8pm–5am34,117 flights78.2%
Scale runs 70% to 95%.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 76.0% on time against 90.1% 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. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 47,788 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter LAX departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from Los Angeles (LAX), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.1% on time and the worst is 11am–2pm at 76.0%, a wide gap of 14.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.1%
- 8–11am81.4%
- 11am–2pm76.0%
- 2–5pm76.0%
- 5–8pm76.4%
- 8pm–5am78.2%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When LAX runs late
LAX's year swings by 12 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
July is the worst month at 73.7% on time, 12 points below September, the best at 85.8%. 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 17,454 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 83.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.6%, a spread of 7 points.
LAX month by month
From Europe
Transatlantic routes into LAX
18 European airports send scheduled passenger flights to LAX, 18,290 flights a year in both directions by the DOT's international count. The DOT keeps no delay record for international flights; the UK routes carry the CAA's departure punctuality, and every route sets its departure airport's EUROCONTROL figures beside LAX's own record above.
- LHR to LAX · London5,981 flights
- CDG to LAX · Paris3,524 flights
- FRA to LAX · Frankfurt1,142 flights
- AMS to LAX · Amsterdam1,110 flights
- FCO to LAX · Rome783 flights
- CPH to LAX · Copenhagen725 flights
- MUC to LAX · Munich700 flights
- ZRH to LAX · Zurich691 flights
- DUB to LAX · Dublin648 flights
- BCN to LAX · Barcelona516 flights
- WAW to LAX · Warsaw506 flights
- MAD to LAX · Madrid475 flights
Delay causes
Why LAX gets delayed
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 2.58 million reported delay minutes.
- 38%Carrier
- 37%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
37% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 2.58 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 17 to one. The split is drawn from 2,581,524 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 38%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 989,000 of the 2.58 million delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 0.97% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.33%.
6.8% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
190,107 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.
What to do with this
Flying out of LAX
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 85.8% on time and July 73.7%, a swing of 12 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 187,638 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
LAX delay questions
How often is Los Angeles (LAX) delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 20.5% of the 190,107 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Los Angeles (LAX)?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 84.9% on time across 40,778 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 72.3%, a gap of 13 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 Los Angeles (LAX)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.1% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 76.0%, 14 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 Los Angeles (LAX)?
July is the weakest month at 73.7% on time, compared with 85.8% in September. 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
- LAX to SFO — San Francisco60.1%
- LAX to JFK — New York77.5%
- LAX to LAS — Las Vegas75.8%
- LAX to DEN — Denver81.6%
- LAX to PHX — Phoenix80.3%
- LAX to SEA — Seattle85.0%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record84.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record80.9%
- American Airlines on-time record76.0%
- United Airlines on-time record82.5%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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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.