Route reliability record
AUS→LAX
Austin to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 4,084
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,242 mi
- Carriers
- 6
This route lands a B+, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 4,084 AUS to LAX flights, of which United Airlines flew 440 at 89.0% on time.
Best time to fly AUS to LAX: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 94.2% of the time and Tuesday flights 88.4%, against 82.6% for the route overall.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 89.0% on time across 440 flights.
Key figures
On time
82.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,053 completed flights
Avg delay
66 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.66%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
89.0% on time across 440 flights
These figures cover 4,084 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on AUS to LAX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 89.0% of the time; American Airlines manages 71.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 375 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 440 | 89.0% | 68 min | 0.23% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 921 | 87.9% | 70 min | 0.33% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,293 | 84.7% | 65 min | 1.16% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 14 | 78.6% | 60 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,041 | 76.5% | 48 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 375 | 71.6% | 104 min | 0.53% | C+ |
The spread between United and American is 17 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 17 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on AUS to LAX
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Austin to Los Angeles
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. AUS → LAXAustin to Los Angeles | United Airlines | 88.8% | 89.0% | 0.23% | 8am–11am, Tue | — |
| 2. AUS → LAXAustin to Los Angeles | SkyWest Airlines | 87.6% | 87.9% | 0.33% | 8am–11am, Tue | — |
| 3. AUS → LAXAustin to Los Angeles | Delta Air Lines | 83.7% | 84.7% | 1.16% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 306 07:20 |
| 4. AUS → LAXAustin to Los Angeles | Southwest Airlines | 76.1% | 76.5% | 0.58% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 5. AUS → LAXAustin to Los Angeles | American Airlines | 71.2% | 71.6% | 0.53% | 2pm–5pm, Thu | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
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 23 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,200 flights90.8%
- 8am–11am193 flights94.2%
- 11am–2pm322 flights81.8%
- 2pm–5pm1,274 flights81.8%
- 5pm–8pm526 flights74.2%
- 8pm–5am569 flights71.0%
Scale runs 65% to 100%.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 94.2% of the time, against 71.0% for the overnight window. That is 23 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 1,274 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter AUS to LAX 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 AUS to LAX, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 94.2% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 71.0%, a wide gap of 23.2 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am90.8%
- 8–11am94.2%
- 11am–2pm81.8%
- 2–5pm81.8%
- 5–8pm74.2%
- 8pm–5am71.0%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 16 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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 91.1% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 387 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 88.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 78.4%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 47,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 41%Carrier
- 7%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 47,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 to one. The split is drawn from 46,716 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 41%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 19,000 of the 47,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.66%, below the national 1.89% 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
5.5% 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.
The 1,242 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.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 77.0% on time across 4,077 flights, 6 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 6 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 4,084 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in LAX after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 91.1% on time and November 75.4%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of November before you think about anything else. 4,053 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
AUS to LAX questions
How often is AUS to LAX delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.4% of the 4,084 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on AUS to LAX?
United Airlines leads at 89.0% on time across 440 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 71.6%, a gap of 17 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 AUS to LAX?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 94.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 71.0%, 23 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 November delays on AUS to LAX?
November is the weakest month at 75.4% on time, compared with 91.1% in September. Across the year that is 16 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 AUS — the return legseparate record
- Austin-Bergstrom International (AUS) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- United Airlines on AUS to LAX89.0%
- SkyWest Airlines on AUS to LAX87.9%
- Delta Air Lines on AUS to LAX84.7%
- Southwest Airlines on AUS to LAX76.5%
- American Airlines on AUS to LAX71.6%
- AUS to DEN, a related route78.9%
- SFO to LAX, a related route70.9%
- AUS to DFW, a related route74.9%
- United Airlines on-time record89.0%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record87.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record84.7%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. AUS to LAX and LAX to AUS are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.