Route reliability record
FLL→LAX
Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 2,333
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,343 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 2,333 FLL to LAX flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 377 at 83.2% on time.
Best time to fly FLL to LAX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 86.0% of the time and Wednesday flights 80.0%, against 75.8% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
75.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,304 completed flights
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.16%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
83.2% on time across 377 flights
These figures cover 2,333 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 4 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 FLL to LAX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 83.2% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 75.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,810 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 377 | 83.2% | 84 min | 1.59% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,810 | 75.6% | 55 min | 0.99% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 146 | 59.4% | 61 min | 2.05% | D |
Delta leads JetBlue by 8 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on FLL 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 Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. FLL → LAXFort Lauderdale to Los Angeles | Delta Air Lines | 81.9% | 83.2% | 1.59% | 8am–11am, Wed | DL 800 07:05 |
| 2. MIA → LAXMiami to Los Angeles | Delta Air Lines | 76.4% | 77.7% | 1.62% | 8am–11am, Wed | DL 450 07:50 |
| 3. FLL → LAXFort Lauderdale to Los Angeles | JetBlue Airways | 74.9% | 75.6% | 0.99% | 5am–8am, Thu | B6 2801 09:20 |
| 4. MIA → LAXMiami to Los Angeles | American Airlines | 74.4% | 74.8% | 0.51% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
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 22 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am572 flights86.0%
- 8am–11am520 flights81.6%
- 11am–2pm304 flights76.1%
- 2pm–5pm130 flights66.9%
- 5pm–8pm408 flights67.4%
- 8pm–5am399 flights64.5%
Scale runs 55% to 90%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.5% on time, against 86.0% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 572 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter FLL 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 FLL to LAX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 86.0% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 64.5%, a wide gap of 21.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am86.0%
- 8–11am81.6%
- 11am–2pm76.1%
- 2–5pm66.9%
- 5–8pm67.4%
- 8pm–5am64.5%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 19 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 89.3% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. December was the busiest month here, with 236 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.3%, a spread of 8 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 33,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 32%Carrier
- 23%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 33,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 19 to one. The split is drawn from 32,716 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 86.0% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.16% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.09%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.4% 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 2,343 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 runs 73.2% on time across 2,331 flights, within 3 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 2,333 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 89.3% on time and May 70.1%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of May before you think about anything else. 2,304 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
FLL to LAX questions
How often is FLL 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 24.2% of the 2,333 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on FLL to LAX?
Delta Air Lines leads at 83.2% on time across 377 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 75.6%, a gap of 8 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 FLL to LAX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 86.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 64.5%, 22 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 May delays on FLL to LAX?
May is the weakest month at 70.1% on time, compared with 89.3% in September. Across the year that is 19 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 FLL — the return legseparate record
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on FLL to LAX83.2%
- JetBlue Airways on FLL to LAX75.6%
- Spirit Airlines on FLL to LAX59.4%
- FLL to ATL, a related route71.0%
- SFO to LAX, a related route70.9%
- FLL to LGA, a related route64.8%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record83.2%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record75.6%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record59.4%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. FLL to LAX and LAX to FLL 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.