OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

San Francisco to Los Angeles

337 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on SFO–LAX arrive on time 75% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate75%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay45 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled0.9%of scheduled flights

based on 10,547 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

Too close to call — no single carrier is clearly more on-time here.

  • United Airlines
    On-time79%
    Medianon time
    p9030 min
    Cancel0.2%
    Flights3,255
  • SkyWest Airlines
    On-time78%
    Medianon time
    p9040 min
    Cancel1.1%
    Flights2,610
  • American Airlines
    On-time75%
    Medianon time
    p9065 min
    Cancel0.4%
    Flights232
  • Delta Air Lines
    On-time74%
    Medianon time
    p9050 min
    Cancel1.6%
    Flights2,374
  • Alaska Airlines
    On-time71%
    Medianon time
    p9040 min
    Cancel0.8%
    Flights472
  • Frontier Airlines
    On-time66%
    Medianon time
    p9075 min
    Cancel1.4%
    Flights279
  • Southwest Airlines
    On-time65%
    Medianon time
    p9065 min
    Cancel0.6%
    Flights1,325

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline25%
  • Weather1%
  • Air traffic (NAS)18%
  • Late aircraft56%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline57%
  • Weather23%
  • Air traffic (NAS)20%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Airline. Shares are among 90 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly SFO → LAX

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 90% on time.

  • Mornings90% on time · p90 10 min · 9,828 flights
  • Evenings75% on time · p90 50 min · 6,135 flights
  • Middays73% on time · p90 50 min · 8,763 flights
  • Afternoons72% on time · p90 55 min · 5,511 flights
  • Overnights68% on time · p90 65 min · 3,375 flights

Best day of week

Tuesdays are the most reliable day to fly this route — 84% on time.

  • Tuesdays84% on time · p90 25 min · 4,603 flights
  • Saturdays82% on time · p90 30 min · 4,305 flights
  • Wednesdays79% on time · p90 35 min · 4,599 flights
  • Mondays75% on time · p90 45 min · 5,077 flights
  • Thursdays75% on time · p90 45 min · 5,072 flights
  • Sundays75% on time · p90 50 min · 4,851 flights
  • Fridays75% on time · p90 55 min · 5,105 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Delay predictorfor this route→SFO airportSan Francisco→LAX airportLos Angeles→United Airlinesairline profile→SkyWest Airlinesairline profile→Delta Air Linesairline profile→Seasonal delay patternsguide→

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.