Route reliability record
PHX→LAX
Phoenix to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 7,586
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 370 mi
- Carriers
- 7
This route lands a B+, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 7,586 PHX to LAX flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 2,677 at 90.0% on time.
Best time to fly PHX to LAX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 94.3% of the time and Tuesday flights 87.6%, against 82.1% for the route overall.
SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 90.0% on time across 2,677 flights.
Key figures
On time
82.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 7,533 completed flights
Avg delay
58 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.66%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
SkyWest
90.0% on time across 2,677 flights
These figures cover 7,586 flights between September 2025 and August 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on PHX to LAX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 90.0% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 70.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,958 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 5 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 155 | 93.5% | 146 min | 0.65% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,677 | 90.0% | 68 min | 0.71% | A+ |
| United Airlinesthin sample | 244 | 86.3% | 61 min | 1.23% | A |
| Frontier Airlines | 501 | 82.0% | 70 min | 1.20% | B |
| American Airlines | 2,046 | 81.7% | 63 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,958 | 70.4% | 46 min | 0.51% | C+ |
The spread between SkyWest and Southwest is 20 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 20 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on PHX 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 Phoenix 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 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PHX → LAXPhoenix to Los Angeles | SkyWest Airlines | 89.4% | 90.0% | 0.71% | 5am–8am, Tue | OO 4119 10:45 |
| 2. PHX → BURPhoenix to Burbank | Envoy Air | 83.9% | 84.4% | 0.55% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 3. PHX → LAXPhoenix to Los Angeles | American Airlines | 81.3% | 81.7% | 0.54% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 4. PHX → LAXPhoenix to Los Angeles | Frontier Airlines | 81.0% | 82.0% | 1.20% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 5. PHX → ONTPhoenix to Ontario | American Airlines | 79.2% | 79.9% | 0.84% | 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 28 points, against 20 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,498 flights94.3%
- 8am–11am1,495 flights87.8%
- 11am–2pm1,111 flights83.6%
- 2pm–5pm1,368 flights78.8%
- 5pm–8pm1,098 flights74.8%
- 8pm–5am1,016 flights66.6%
Scale runs 60% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.3% of the time, against 66.6% for the overnight window. That is 28 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,498 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHX 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 PHX to LAX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 94.3% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 66.6%, a wide gap of 27.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am94.3%
- 8–11am87.8%
- 11am–2pm83.6%
- 2–5pm78.8%
- 5–8pm74.8%
- 8pm–5am66.6%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 7,586 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
July is the worst month at 75.9% on time, 10 points below September, the best at 85.5%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 680 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 87.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 75.1%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 78,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 40%Carrier
- 10%National Airspace System
- 4%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. Across 78,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 to one. The split is drawn from 77,880 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 40%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 31,000 of the 78,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.66%, 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
5.0% 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 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 80.3% on time across 7,623 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 7,586 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: avoid the 8pm–5am departure. It runs 66.6% on time against 94.3% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 28 points is the largest single thing you control here. SkyWest Airlines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 7,533 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHX to LAX questions
How often is PHX to LAX delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.9% of the 7,586 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on PHX to LAX?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 90.0% on time across 2,677 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 70.4%, a gap of 20 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 PHX to LAX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 94.3% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 66.6%, 28 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 PHX to LAX?
July is the weakest month at 75.9% on time, compared with 85.5% in September. Across the year that is 10 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 PHX — the return legseparate record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on PHX to LAX93.5%
- SkyWest Airlines on PHX to LAX90.0%
- United Airlines on PHX to LAX86.3%
- Frontier Airlines on PHX to LAX82.0%
- American Airlines on PHX to LAX81.7%
- Southwest Airlines on PHX to LAX70.4%
- PHX to DEN, a related route76.7%
- SFO to LAX, a related route70.9%
- PHX to SEA, a related route82.2%
- Envoy Air on-time record100.0%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record93.5%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record90.0%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. PHX to LAX and LAX to PHX 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.