Airport month record

LAXAPR

Los Angeles International in April 2026

Departures: 15,732
Month: April 2026
National, same month: 79.8%
Carriers: 9

Historical statistics for April 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s April. For today’s conditions at LAX, see live FAA status.

LAX in April lands a B+, 2 points better than the national rate of 79.8%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 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 15,732 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 3,202 at 88.0% on time.

SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 88.0% on time across 3,202 flights.

On time

81.5%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 15,622 completed departures

Avg delay

62 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.44%

Nationally in April: 0.90%

Whole year

80.4%

LAX across all twelve months

These figures cover 15,732 departures from Los Angeles International in April 2026. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.

Against the year

April next to LAX's other months

Against LAX's own year, April ran about a point better than the twelve-month rate of 80.4%, which makes it number four of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for LAX in April, at 0.44% against 0.94% across the year. Either side of it, March ran 77.7% on time and May 80.0%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

LAX month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	17,104	77.5%	78 min	1.20%	B
August 2025	16,493	82.5%	73 min	0.53%	B+
September 2025	15,262	85.8%	66 min	0.28%	A+
October 2025	16,122	83.5%	70 min	0.31%	B+
November 2025	15,422	79.7%	67 min	1.78%	B
December 2025	16,050	77.7%	71 min	0.88%	B+
January 2026	14,815	81.2%	76 min	2.17%	B
February 2026	13,687	80.9%	69 min	1.42%	B
March 2026	16,088	77.7%	65 min	1.29%	B
April 2026 (this page)	15,732	81.5%	62 min	0.44%	B+
May 2026	16,317	80.0%	64 min	0.54%	B+
June 2026	16,664	77.0%	69 min	0.61%	B+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave LAX in April

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,859 flights92.8%
8am–11am3,987 flights82.9%
11am–2pm2,395 flights77.6%
2pm–5pm2,295 flights78.5%
5pm–8pm2,174 flights76.9%
8pm–5am3,022 flights81.2%

Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.8% of the time, against 76.9% for the evening window. That is 16 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 3,987 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 78.0%. 6 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at LAX in April

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 88.0% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 72.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,140 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at LAX in April 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SkyWest Airlines	3,202	88.0%	81 min	0.28%	A+
Delta Air Lines	3,177	81.4%	60 min	0.72%	B+
United Airlines	2,584	85.8%	55 min	0.19%	A+
American Airlines	2,449	80.4%	80 min	0.37%	B+
Southwest Airlines	2,140	72.7%	43 min	0.19%	C+
Alaska Airlines	940	76.0%	52 min	0.74%	B+
JetBlue Airways	595	80.8%	47 min	0.00%	B+
Frontier Airlines	462	74.6%	77 min	1.08%	C
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	183	69.5%	59 min	4.37%	C−

The spread between SkyWest and Southwest is 15 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 15 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of LAX in April

Routes from LAX in April 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
LAX to SFO · San Francisco	988	48.6%	53 min	0.81%	F+
LAX to JFK · New York	855	86.1%	70 min	0.47%	A+
LAX to LAS · Las Vegas	670	77.5%	50 min	0.60%	B+
LAX to PHX · Phoenix	638	83.7%	60 min	0.16%	B+
LAX to DEN · Denver	631	88.7%	52 min	0.16%	A+
LAX to SEA · Seattle	613	87.7%	49 min	0.82%	A+
LAX to ORD · Chicago	552	78.8%	82 min	1.27%	B
LAX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	508	81.6%	63 min	0.79%	B+
LAX to SMF · Sacramento	471	84.5%	70 min	0.21%	B+
LAX to HNL · Honolulu	468	65.8%	58 min	0.43%	C+
LAX to IAH · Houston	436	88.0%	66 min	0.46%	A+
LAX to AUS · Austin	383	80.3%	71 min	0.26%	B+
LAX to ATL · Atlanta	378	81.2%	77 min	0.00%	B+
LAX to BOS · Bostonthin sample	364	76.6%	53 min	0.27%	B+
LAX to EWR · Newarkthin sample	354	88.3%	69 min	0.85%	A+
LAX to PDX · Portlandthin sample	346	87.5%	80 min	0.87%	A+
LAX to SJC · San Josethin sample	343	86.4%	40 min	1.46%	A
LAX to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	342	85.6%	77 min	0.00%	A+
LAX to MCO · Orlandothin sample	321	82.5%	80 min	0.31%	B+
LAX to MIA · Miamithin sample	285	88.3%	127 min	0.35%	A+
LAX to TUS · Tucsonthin sample	226	86.2%	57 min	0.44%	A+
LAX to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	225	94.2%	104 min	0.00%	A+
LAX to RNO · Renothin sample	219	90.9%	34 min	0.00%	A+
LAX to OGG · Kahuluithin sample	210	80.8%	45 min	0.95%	B+
LAX to DTW · Detroitthin sample	208	82.9%	60 min	0.96%	B+

Delay causes

What held LAX up in April

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 178,000 reported delay minutes.

Carrier
40%
Late-arriving aircraft
37%
National Airspace System
22%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%

37% 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 178,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 37 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 178,416 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.44%, below the national 0.90% 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.

5.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.4%. 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 last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from LAX in April

For a April trip through LAX: expect 81.5% on time and 0.44% cancelled, going by April 2026. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

Los Angeles International (LAX), the whole year
LAX in July77.5%
LAX in August82.5%
LAX in September85.8%
LAX in October83.5%
LAX in November79.7%
LAX in December77.7%
LAX in January81.2%
LAX in February80.9%
LAX in March77.7%
LAX in May80.0%
LAX in June77.0%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures