OOAUS→LAX

SkyWest flew 817 of the 4,077 flights on AUS to LAX, about 20% of it. Its 88.0% on time is 7 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 81.3%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of six carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 88.8% to American at 71.5%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 88.8% of the time; American Airlines manages 71.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 482 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.9% 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 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. 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 85.6% on time across 817 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.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 817 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.