Route reliability record
LAX→LAS
Los Angeles to Las Vegas
- Flights
- 8,420
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Distance
- 236 mi
- Carriers
- 8
This route lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.4%. Roughly one flight in four 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 8,420 flights, of which Spirit Airlines flew 730 at 84.4% on time.
Spirit Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 84.4% on time across 730 flights.
Key figures
On time
76.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 8,356 completed flights
Avg delay
65 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.76%
National rate is 1.80%
Best carrier
Spirit
84.4% on time across 730 flights
These figures cover 8,420 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 5 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 LAX to LAS
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Spirit Airlines arrives on time 84.4% of the time; American Airlines manages 68.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,106 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 296 | 86.9% | 52 min | 1.69% | A |
| Spirit Airlines | 730 | 84.4% | 76 min | 0.96% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 1,560 | 84.0% | 59 min | 0.51% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,736 | 77.9% | 60 min | 0.75% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 2,399 | 73.8% | 54 min | 0.54% | C+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 576 | 69.1% | 76 min | 1.74% | C |
| American Airlines | 1,106 | 68.4% | 90 min | 0.72% | C+ |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 17 | 64.7% | 28 min | 0.00% | D+ |
The spread between Spirit and American is 16 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 16 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 25 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am871 flights95.2%
- 8am–11am1,475 flights87.1%
- 11am–2pm1,282 flights73.2%
- 2pm–5pm1,641 flights70.8%
- 5pm–8pm1,593 flights70.2%
- 8pm–5am1,558 flights73.2%
Scale runs 60% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 95.2% of the time, against 70.2% for the evening window. That is 25 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 8,420 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
Delays peak in May, when the on-time rate falls to 73.1%. August is the strongest month at 80.9%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 8 points.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.0% on time and Thursday the weakest at 70.9%. 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 45% of the 126,000 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.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 27%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% 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 126,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 45 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 95.2% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.76%, 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
7.9% 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 78.7% on time across 8,424 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 8,420 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 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 70.2% on time against 95.2% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 25 points is the largest single thing you control here. Spirit Airlines is the strongest operator if the fares are close.
Common questions
LAX to LAS questions
How often is LAX to LAS delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.1% of the 8,420 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on LAX to LAS?
Spirit Airlines leads at 84.4% on time across 730 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 68.4%, a gap of 16 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 LAX to LAS?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 95.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 70.2%, 25 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 LAX to LAS?
May is the weakest month at 73.1% on time, compared with 80.9% in August. Across the year that is 8 points between the best and worst months. The seasonal swing is modest enough that it should not decide when you travel.
Related
Where to go next
- LAS to LAX — the return legseparate record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Harry Reid International (LAS) delay statistics
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record86.9%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record84.4%
- United Airlines on-time record84.0%
- 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. LAX to LAS and LAS to LAX 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.