Route reliability record
SJC→LAX
San Jose to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 4,433
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 308 mi
- Carriers
- 6
This route earns a A+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 9 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about 55 minutes. That rests on 4,433 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 2,053 at 92.6% on time.
SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 92.6% on time across 2,053 flights.
Key figures
On time
86.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,397 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.77%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
SkyWest
92.6% on time across 2,053 flights
These figures cover 4,433 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 11 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 SJC to LAX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 92.6% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 78.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,823 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlinesthin sample | 1 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,053 | 92.6% | 73 min | 0.39% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 454 | 92.3% | 50 min | 3.08% | A− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 96 | 82.6% | 56 min | 4.17% | B− |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,823 | 78.9% | 47 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 6 | 66.7% | 29 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Delta Air Lines cancels 3.1% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
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. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am693 flights95.8%
- 8am–11am794 flights92.1%
- 11am–2pm619 flights88.0%
- 2pm–5pm937 flights84.5%
- 5pm–8pm777 flights79.8%
- 8pm–5am613 flights79.9%
Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 95.8% of the time, against 79.8% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 937 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 15 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.
June is the worst month at 77.1% on time, 15 points below January, the best at 92.5%. 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. September was the busiest month here, with 424 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 90.9% on time and Friday the weakest at 81.1%. 10 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 32,000 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
- 38%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 6%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 32,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 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 split is drawn from 31,875 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 38%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 12,000 of the 32,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.77%, below the national 1.81% 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
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.7% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
At 308 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 86.6% on time across 4,429 flights, within half a point 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 4,433 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: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 92.5% on time and June 77.1%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 4,397 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SJC to LAX questions
How often is SJC to LAX delayed?
About one flight in seven arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 13.4% of the 4,433 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SJC to LAX?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 92.6% on time across 2,053 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 78.9%, 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 SJC to LAX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 95.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 79.8%, 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 June delays on SJC to LAX?
June is the weakest month at 77.1% on time, compared with 92.5% in January. Across the year that is 15 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 SJC — the return legseparate record
- Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International (SJC) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- United Airlines on-time record100.0%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record92.6%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record92.3%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Direction matters. SJC to LAX and LAX to SJC 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.