Airport month record

LAXJAN

Los Angeles International in January 2026

Departures: 14,815
Month: January 2026
National, same month: 79.2%
Carriers: 9

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

LAX in January lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 79.2%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 14,815 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 3,580 at 85.6% on time.

SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 85.6% on time across 3,580 flights.

On time

81.2%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 14,460 completed departures

Avg delay

76 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

2.17%

Nationally in January: 4.71%

Whole year

80.4%

LAX across all twelve months

These figures cover 14,815 departures from Los Angeles International in January 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

January next to LAX's other months

Against LAX's own year, January ran level with the twelve-month rate of 80.4%, which makes it number five of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where January stands out: 2.17% of scheduled departures were called off, 2.3 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, December ran 77.7% on time and February 80.9%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.

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 (this page)	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	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 January

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 12 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,636 flights89.1%
8am–11am3,995 flights82.2%
11am–2pm2,600 flights76.9%
2pm–5pm2,195 flights79.8%
5pm–8pm1,956 flights80.7%
8pm–5am2,433 flights80.8%

Scale runs 70% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 76.9% on time against 89.1% 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 3,995 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 87.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.3%. 11 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at LAX in January

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 85.6% of the time; American Airlines manages 72.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,320 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at LAX in January 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SkyWest Airlines	3,580	85.6%	73 min	1.12%	A
Delta Air Lines	2,779	82.1%	76 min	2.02%	B
American Airlines	2,320	72.4%	96 min	5.43%	C−
United Airlines	2,210	84.5%	71 min	1.27%	B
Southwest Airlines	1,846	83.2%	48 min	0.87%	B+
Alaska Airlines	790	79.4%	55 min	1.14%	B
JetBlue Airways	599	75.8%	70 min	4.01%	B−
Frontier Airlines	409	74.7%	108 min	2.93%	C
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	280	75.1%	73 min	3.93%	B−

American Airlines cancels 5.4% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of LAX in January

Routes from LAX in January 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
LAX to JFK · New York	825	74.8%	107 min	5.58%	C−
LAX to SFO · San Francisco	772	81.9%	82 min	1.04%	B
LAX to LAS · Las Vegas	743	77.7%	58 min	0.81%	B+
LAX to PHX · Phoenix	634	82.7%	101 min	0.79%	B+
LAX to DEN · Denver	600	88.3%	60 min	0.00%	A+
LAX to SEA · Seattle	562	86.0%	72 min	1.07%	A
LAX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	478	71.1%	87 min	10.04%	C−
LAX to ORD · Chicago	463	77.3%	69 min	1.73%	B
LAX to IAH · Houston	437	86.7%	62 min	1.60%	A
LAX to HNL · Honolulu	424	74.0%	86 min	0.24%	C+
LAX to SMF · Sacramento	419	84.2%	81 min	0.95%	B+
LAX to SLC · Salt Lake City	394	83.9%	85 min	0.51%	B+
LAX to BOS · Boston	373	75.0%	91 min	5.63%	B−
LAX to ATL · Atlantathin sample	363	71.8%	72 min	2.48%	C
LAX to PDX · Portlandthin sample	330	83.5%	67 min	0.61%	B+
LAX to EWR · Newarkthin sample	325	75.4%	71 min	3.69%	B−
LAX to SJC · San Josethin sample	320	91.6%	53 min	0.00%	A+
LAX to AUS · Austinthin sample	304	80.7%	55 min	2.96%	B
LAX to MCO · Orlandothin sample	303	78.5%	82 min	1.98%	B
LAX to MIA · Miamithin sample	299	77.1%	80 min	3.68%	B−
LAX to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	207	75.6%	74 min	0.97%	B+
LAX to TUS · Tucsonthin sample	203	83.3%	111 min	0.00%	B+
LAX to DTW · Detroitthin sample	202	77.5%	61 min	0.00%	B+
LAX to SAN · San Diegothin sample	197	83.0%	72 min	1.52%	B
LAX to RNO · Renothin sample	187	90.9%	53 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held LAX up in January

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 43% of the 205,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

Carrier
43%
Late-arriving aircraft
36%
National Airspace System
18%
Extreme weather
3%
Security
0%

36% 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 205,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 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 204,681 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 2.17% against a national 4.71%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.22%.

6.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 7.6%. 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from LAX in January

For a January trip through LAX: expect 81.2% on time and 2.17% cancelled, going by January 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 February80.9%
LAX in March77.7%
LAX in April81.5%
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