Route reliability record
LAX→PHX
Los Angeles to Phoenix
- Flights
- 7,623
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 370 mi
- Carriers
- 7
This route lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 7,623 LAX to PHX flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 2,677 at 87.2% on time.
Best time to fly LAX to PHX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.8% of the time and Tuesday flights 85.4%, against 80.3% for the route overall.
SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 87.2% on time across 2,677 flights.
Key figures
On time
80.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 7,554 completed flights
Avg delay
68 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.77%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
SkyWest
87.2% on time across 2,677 flights
These figures cover 7,623 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 6 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 LAX to PHX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 87.2% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 72.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,992 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlinesthin sample | 245 | 88.9% | 88 min | 0.41% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,677 | 87.2% | 61 min | 0.71% | A+ |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 156 | 83.9% | 77 min | 0.64% | B+ |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 6 | 83.3% | 22 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 2,047 | 78.5% | 90 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 500 | 75.7% | 72 min | 1.40% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,992 | 72.8% | 53 min | 1.00% | C |
The spread between SkyWest and Southwest is 14 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 14 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on LAX to PHX
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 Los Angeles to Phoenix
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. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. LAX → PHXLos Angeles to Phoenix | SkyWest Airlines | 86.6% | 87.2% | 0.71% | 11am–2pm, Tue | OO 3894 14:19 |
| 2. BUR → PHXBurbank to Phoenix | Southwest Airlines | 83.9% | 84.8% | 1.02% | 8am–11am, Tue | — |
| 3. ONT → PHXOntario to Phoenix | American Airlines | 83.7% | 84.5% | 0.92% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 4. SNA → PHXSanta Ana to Phoenix | Southwest Airlines | 82.3% | 82.9% | 0.67% | 5am–8am, Mon | — |
| 5. SNA → PHXSanta Ana to Phoenix | American Airlines | 81.1% | 81.6% | 0.62% | 8am–11am, Tue | AA 628 06:45 |
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 16 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am883 flights89.8%
- 8am–11am1,782 flights85.2%
- 11am–2pm1,107 flights80.6%
- 2pm–5pm1,320 flights75.8%
- 5pm–8pm1,199 flights73.8%
- 8pm–5am1,332 flights77.7%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.8% of the time, against 73.8% for the evening window. That is 16 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 1,782 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter LAX to PHX 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 LAX to PHX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.8% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 73.8%, a wide gap of 16.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.8%
- 8–11am85.2%
- 11am–2pm80.6%
- 2–5pm75.8%
- 5–8pm73.8%
- 8pm–5am77.7%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 7,623 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
April is the best month on the calendar at 83.7% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 680 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 85.4% on time and Friday the weakest at 76.2%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 50% of the 100,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 100,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 19 to one. The split is drawn from 100,456 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 89.8% on time 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
6.6% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 370 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 82.1% on time across 7,586 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 7,623 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 PHX after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 73.8% on time against 89.8% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 16 points is the largest single thing you control here. SkyWest Airlines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 7,554 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
LAX to PHX questions
How often is LAX to PHX delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.7% of the 7,623 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on LAX to PHX?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 87.2% on time across 2,677 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 72.8%, a gap of 14 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 PHX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 73.8%, 16 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 November delays on LAX to PHX?
November is the weakest month at 75.6% on time, compared with 83.7% in April. Across the year that is 8 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
- PHX to LAX — the return legseparate record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- United Airlines on LAX to PHX88.9%
- SkyWest Airlines on LAX to PHX87.2%
- Delta Air Lines on LAX to PHX83.9%
- American Airlines on LAX to PHX78.5%
- Frontier Airlines on LAX to PHX75.7%
- Southwest Airlines on LAX to PHX72.8%
- LAX to SFO, a related route60.1%
- DEN to PHX, a related route75.6%
- LAX to JFK, a related route77.5%
- United Airlines on-time record88.9%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record87.2%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record83.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. LAX to PHX and PHX to LAX 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.