Route reliability record

LAS→LAX

Las Vegas to Los Angeles

Flights: 8,424
Period: June 2025 to May 2026
Distance: 236 mi
Carriers: 8

This route lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 8,424 flights, of which Spirit Airlines flew 737 at 87.0% on time.

Spirit Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 87.0% on time across 737 flights.

On time

78.7%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 8,367 completed flights

Avg delay

61 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.68%

National rate is 1.80%

Best carrier

Spirit

87.0% on time across 737 flights

These figures cover 8,424 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 7 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 LAS to LAX

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Spirit Airlines arrives on time 87.0% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 68.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,395 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance by carrier on LAS to LAX
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Spirit Airlines	737	87.0%	59 min	0.95%	A+
United Airlines	1,562	86.2%	55 min	0.70%	A+
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	297	84.6%	71 min	1.68%	B
Delta Air Lines	1,738	83.2%	67 min	0.86%	B+
Frontier Airlines	575	79.8%	54 min	0.17%	B+
American Airlines	1,103	76.0%	105 min	0.82%	B+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	17	70.6%	30 min	0.00%	C+
Southwest Airlines	2,395	68.3%	47 min	0.38%	C+

The spread between Spirit and Southwest is 19 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 19 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 26 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,569 flights91.9%
8am–11am1,686 flights84.9%
11am–2pm1,228 flights76.2%
2pm–5pm1,094 flights74.1%
5pm–8pm1,873 flights72.8%
8pm–5am974 flights65.8%

Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.9% of the time, against 65.8% for the overnight window. That is 26 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on.

Across the year

When delays peak on this route

Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 8,424 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.February best, July worst

July is the worst month at 74.0% on time, 9 points below February, the best at 82.8%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 73.2%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why this route gets delayed

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 53% of the 109,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
53%
Carrier
32%
National Airspace System
14%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%

53% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 109,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 42 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit.

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 91.9% on time here.

Cancellations are rare at 0.68%, below the national 1.80% 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

6.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the about an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.

At 236 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.

The return leg runs 76.9% on time across 8,420 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 8,424 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 65.8% on time against 91.9% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 26 points is the largest single thing you control here. Spirit Airlines is the strongest operator if the fares are close.

Common questions

LAS to LAX questions

How often is LAS to LAX delayed?

About one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.3% of the 8,424 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.

Which airline is most reliable on LAS to LAX?

Spirit Airlines leads at 87.0% on time across 737 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 68.3%, a gap of 19 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 LAS to LAX?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.9% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 65.8%, 26 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 July delays on LAS to LAX?

July is the weakest month at 74.0% on time, compared with 82.8% in February. Across the year that is 9 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.

Where to go next

Direction matters. LAS to LAX and LAX to LAS 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, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures