Route reliability record
SJC→LAX
San Jose to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 4,470
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 308 mi
- Carriers
- 6
This route earns an 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 8 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs roughly 55 minutes. That rests on 4,470 SJC to LAX flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 1,809 at 91.7% on time.
Best time to fly SJC to LAX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 94.2% of the time and Tuesday flights 90.8%, against 85.0% for the route overall.
SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 91.7% on time across 1,809 flights.
Key figures
On time
85.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,427 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.92%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
SkyWest
91.7% on time across 1,809 flights
These figures cover 4,470 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 10 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 SJC to LAX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 91.7% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 76.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,867 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 | 1,809 | 91.7% | 76 min | 0.44% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 649 | 91.6% | 57 min | 2.31% | A |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,867 | 76.8% | 47 min | 0.64% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 138 | 75.8% | 43 min | 4.35% | B− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 6 | 66.7% | 29 min | 0.00% | C+ |
The spread between SkyWest and Southwest is 15 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 15 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on SJC 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 San Jose 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. 3 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SJC → LAXSan Jose to Los Angeles | SkyWest Airlines | 91.3% | 91.7% | 0.44% | 5am–8am, Tue | OO 3883 20:05 |
| 2. SJC → LAXSan Jose to Los Angeles | Delta Air Lines | 89.5% | 91.6% | 2.31% | 11am–2pm, Tue | — |
| 3. MRY → LAXMonterey to Los Angeles | SkyWest Airlines | 86.2% | 86.8% | 0.70% | 5pm–8pm, Wed | — |
| 4. SJC → SNASan Jose to Santa Ana | Southwest Airlines | 85.9% | 86.6% | 0.78% | 5am–8am, Sat (route) | — |
| 5. OAK → LGBOakland to Long Beach | Southwest Airlines | 85.4% | 85.7% | 0.32% | 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 19 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am713 flights94.2%
- 8am–11am774 flights91.4%
- 11am–2pm566 flights86.8%
- 2pm–5pm1,004 flights83.8%
- 5pm–8pm782 flights78.3%
- 8pm–5am631 flights75.2%
Scale runs 65% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.2% of the time, against 75.2% for the overnight window. That is 19 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 1,004 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SJC 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 SJC to LAX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 94.2% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 75.2%, a wide gap of 19.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am94.2%
- 8–11am91.4%
- 11am–2pm86.8%
- 2–5pm83.8%
- 5–8pm78.3%
- 8pm–5am75.2%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 100%.
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 90.8% on time and Friday the weakest at 80.2%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 36,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 35%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 36,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. The split is drawn from 35,859 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 12,000 of the 36,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 0.92% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.04%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.1% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% 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 85.6% on time across 4,471 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 4,470 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: 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. 4,427 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 arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 15.0% of the 4,470 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SJC to LAX?
SkyWest Airlines leads at 91.7% on time across 1,809 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 76.8%, a gap of 15 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 94.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 75.2%, 19 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
- SkyWest Airlines on SJC to LAX91.7%
- Delta Air Lines on SJC to LAX91.6%
- Southwest Airlines on SJC to LAX76.8%
- Frontier Airlines on SJC to LAX75.8%
- SJC to SAN, a related route68.3%
- SFO to LAX, a related route70.9%
- SJC to SEA, a related route82.7%
- United Airlines on-time record100.0%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record91.7%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record91.6%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
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.
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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.