Route reliability record
ABQ→LAX
Albuquerque to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 2,197
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 677 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route earns a A+. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 10 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs an hour and a half. That rests on 2,197 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 1,717 at 91.1% on time.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 10 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 103 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
87.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,180 completed flights
Avg delay
89 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.46%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
SkyWest
91.1% on time across 1,717 flights
These figures cover 2,197 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 12 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 airline is most reliable on ABQ to LAX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 91.1% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 76.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 480 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,717 | 91.1% | 108 min | 0.29% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 480 | 76.4% | 62 min | 1.04% | B |
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.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 28 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am777 flights93.4%
- 8am–11am26 flights—
- 11am–2pm717 flights91.1%
- 2pm–5pm137 flights83.2%
- 5pm–8pm480 flights78.4%
- 8pm–5am60 flights65.0%
Scale runs 55% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 93.4% of the time, against 65.0% for the overnight window. That is 28 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 777 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 2,197 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
Delays peak in October, when the on-time rate falls to 81.8%. January is the strongest month at 92.4%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 11 points. May was the busiest month here, with 207 flights.
The day of the week is close to irrelevant here: 4 points separates the best day from the worst. Weekly demand peaks are not what drives the delays on this operation.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 59% of the 23,000 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.
- 59%Carrier
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%Extreme weather
- 4%National Airspace System
- 1%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 59%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 14,000 of the 23,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 23,376 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 93.4% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.46%, 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.5% 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.
The 677 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg runs 86.0% on time across 2,198 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 2,197 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: avoid the 8pm–5am departure. It runs 65.0% on time against 93.4% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 28 points is the largest single thing you control here. SkyWest Airlines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 2,180 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ABQ to LAX questions
How often is ABQ to LAX delayed?
About one flight in eight arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 12.1% of the 2,197 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on ABQ to LAX?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 91.1% on time across 1,717 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 76.4%, a gap of 15 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 ABQ to LAX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 65.0%, 28 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 October delays on ABQ to LAX?
October is the weakest month at 81.8% on time, compared with 92.4% 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
- LAX to ABQ — the return legseparate record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record91.1%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record76.4%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- Do budget airlines really get delayed more? The numbers
Direction matters. ABQ to LAX and LAX to ABQ are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.