Route reliability record
BNA→LAX
Nashville to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 2,332
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,798 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B+, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 2,332 BNA to LAX flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 911 at 84.1% on time.
Best time to fly BNA to LAX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.9% of the time and Tuesday flights 80.5%, against 76.0% for the route overall.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 84.1% on time across 911 flights.
Key figures
On time
76.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,311 completed flights
Avg delay
58 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.77%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
84.1% on time across 911 flights
These figures cover 2,332 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 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 BNA to LAX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 84.1% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 69.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 933 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 911 | 84.1% | 60 min | 1.10% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 42 | 80.5% | 78 min | 2.38% | B |
| American Airlines | 446 | 73.4% | 92 min | 0.45% | C+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 933 | 69.2% | 43 min | 0.54% | C+ |
The spread between Delta 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.
Flight by flight
Flights on BNA 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 Nashville 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. BNA → LAXNashville to Los Angeles | Delta Air Lines | 83.2% | 84.1% | 1.10% | 5am–8am, Fri | DL 891 07:00 |
| 2. BNA → LAXNashville to Los Angeles | American Airlines | 73.1% | 73.4% | 0.45% | 5am–8am, Fri | — |
| 3. BNA → LAXNashville to Los Angeles | Southwest Airlines | 68.8% | 69.2% | 0.54% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
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 15 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am600 flights88.9%
- 8am–11am196 flights85.1%
- 11am–2pm27 flights—
- 2pm–5pm607 flights74.4%
- 5pm–8pm523 flights67.0%
- 8pm–5am379 flights66.1%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.9% of the time, against 66.1% 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 607 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter BNA 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 BNA to LAX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.9% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 66.1%, a wide gap of 22.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.9%
- 8–11am85.1%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2–5pm74.4%
- 5–8pm67.0%
- 8pm–5am66.1%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 28 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.
Delays peak in April, when the on-time rate falls to 62.8%. March is the strongest month at 90.8%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 28 points. June was the busiest month here, with 232 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 69.0%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 32,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 41%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 32,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 24 to one. The split is drawn from 32,163 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 41%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 13,000 of the 32,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.77%, 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
6.4% 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.
At 1,798 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 79.8% on time across 2,322 flights, 4 points above 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 4 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,332 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. March runs 90.8% on time and April 62.8%, a swing of 28 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of April before you think about anything else. 2,311 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
BNA to LAX questions
How often is BNA to LAX delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.0% of the 2,332 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on BNA to LAX?
Delta Air Lines leads at 84.1% on time across 911 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 69.2%, 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 BNA to LAX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.9% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 66.1%, 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 April delays on BNA to LAX?
April is the weakest month at 62.8% on time, compared with 90.8% in March. Across the year that is 28 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 BNA — the return legseparate record
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on BNA to LAX84.1%
- American Airlines on BNA to LAX73.4%
- Southwest Airlines on BNA to LAX69.2%
- BNA to ORD, a related route70.9%
- SFO to LAX, a related route70.9%
- BNA to DCA, a related route71.3%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record84.1%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record80.5%
- American Airlines on-time record73.4%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. BNA to LAX and LAX to BNA 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.