Routes › Los Angeles (LAX) › LAX to SFO
Route · 12 months to July 2026
Los Angeles to San Francisco: on-time record
Los Angeles International to San Francisco International
BTS: A flight is counted as on time if it arrived less than 15 minutes after its scheduled time. Only carriers with at least 0.5 percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenue report. Data through July 2026; this is a monthly history, not live flight status.
Flights from Los Angeles (LAX) to San Francisco (SFO) arrived on time 61.7% of the time in the 12 months to July 2026. Reporting carriers scheduled 11,235 flights on the route in that period, about 31 a day, a distance of 337 miles.
That is 14.3 points below the national on-time share of 76.0% for the same period and 17.3 points below the 79.0% recorded for all departures from LAX. Flights that did arrive were 16.6 min late on average, and 0.8% of scheduled flights were cancelled (national: 1.8%).
7 reporting carriers flew the route at least 60 times. SkyWest Airlines had the highest on-time share at 68.3% of 2,573 flights; Frontier Airlines had the lowest at 48.3% of 391.
By scheduled departure hour (local time at LAX), flights leaving from 6 am to 7 am had the highest on-time share, 93.6%; those leaving from 8 pm to 9 pm had the lowest, 42.2%.
The on-time share is down 14.4 points on the previous 12 months (76.1%); cancellations moved from 0.2% to 0.8%.
Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category on this route, national aviation system 55%, late-arriving aircraft 25% and air carrier 19%.
- On time 61.7%
- Arrived 15+ minutes late 37.5%
- Cancelled 0.8%
- Diverted 0.0%
Airlines on the route compared
| Reporting carrier | Flights | Share | On time | Avg arrival delay | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UA United Airlines | 3,291 | 29% | 64.2% | 14.5 min | 0.2% |
| OO SkyWest Airlines | 2,573 | 23% | 68.3% | 12.1 min | 1.2% |
| DL Delta Air Lines | 2,374 | 21% | 61.9% | 14.2 min | 1.6% |
| WN Southwest Airlines | 1,426 | 13% | 53.7% | 24.1 min | 0.4% |
| AS Alaska Airlines | 864 | 8% | 50.9% | 23.8 min | 0.5% |
| F9 Frontier Airlines | 391 | 3% | 48.3% | 28.7 min | 2.3% |
| AA American Airlines | 316 | 3% | 61.4% | 23.2 min | 0.0% |
Carriers with at least 24 flights in the 12 months to July 2026. The on-time pill is green when a carrier is at or above the route's overall share. Regional carriers operate flights sold under larger airlines' brands; BTS lists the carrier that operated the flight.
Compared with the airports and the nation
| Measure | LAX to SFO | All departures from LAX | All arrivals at SFO | All reported flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrived on time | 61.7% | 79.0% | 67.2% | 76.0% |
| Arrived 15+ minutes late | 37.5% | 19.7% | 31.6% | 21.9% |
| Cancelled | 0.8% | 0.9% | 1.1% | 1.8% |
| Diverted | 0.0% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.3% |
| Average arrival delay | 16.6 min | 4.8 min | 14.0 min | 8.1 min |
| Delay minutes per 100 flights | 2,285 | 1,441 | 2,198 | 1,684 |
| Scheduled flights | 11,235 | 190,106 | 147,716 | 7,043,858 |
12 months to July 2026. Delay minutes count late arrivals only (an early arrival is zero), so the per-100-flights row is a normalised total rather than an average of early and late.
The return direction, SFO to LAX, recorded 72.1% on time across 11,235 flights in the same period.
Month by month
Year on year: on time 61.7% against 76.1% (−14.4 pts), cancelled 0.8% against 0.2%, flights 11,235 against 11,361.
By scheduled departure hour
Delay causes
Seasonality
| Calendar month | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg arrival delay | Years in sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 2,482 | 76.2% | 2.1% | 3.5 min | 3 |
| Feb | 2,382 | 64.3% | 1.1% | 17.4 min | 3 |
| Mar | 2,780 | 68.5% | 0.8% | 10.5 min | 3 |
| Apr | 2,907 | 59.6% | 0.4% | 18.8 min | 3 |
| May | 2,993 | 59.2% | 0.5% | 19.1 min | 3 |
| Jun | 2,837 | 63.1% | 0.3% | 16.5 min | 3 |
| Jul | 2,956 | 63.9% | 1.0% | 16.2 min | 3 |
| Aug | 2,928 | 76.5% | 0.4% | 6.3 min | 3 |
| Sep | 2,931 | 74.4% | 0.2% | 6.8 min | 3 |
| Oct | 3,061 | 72.7% | 0.0% | 8.5 min | 3 |
| Nov | 2,924 | 72.7% | 1.1% | 10.6 min | 3 |
| Dec | 2,698 | 71.7% | 0.3% | 10.2 min | 3 |
Each calendar month summed across the 36 months on file, so most rows combine three years. The pill compares the month with the route's own 12-month share.
Other routes from Los Angeles (LAX)
| Route | Cities | Flights | On time | Avg arrival delay | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAX–JFK | Los Angeles to New York | 10,284 | 76.4% | 7.2 min | 2.5% |
| LAX–LAS | Los Angeles to Las Vegas | 8,239 | 76.0% | 8.2 min | 0.8% |
| LAX–DEN | Los Angeles to Denver | 7,708 | 81.3% | 2.9 min | 0.5% |
| LAX–PHX | Los Angeles to Phoenix | 7,629 | 79.9% | 6.2 min | 0.7% |
| LAX–SEA | Los Angeles to Seattle | 7,450 | 84.5% | -2.8 min | 0.9% |
| LAX–ORD | Los Angeles to Chicago | 7,025 | 74.4% | 11.2 min | 1.5% |
| LAX–DFW | Los Angeles to Dallas/Fort Worth | 6,225 | 72.0% | 15.5 min | 2.4% |
| LAX–SMF | Los Angeles to Sacramento | 5,640 | 84.3% | 1.2 min | 0.4% |
All 106 routes and the airport record for LAX · airport record for SFO
Questions and answers
How often are flights from Los Angeles to San Francisco on time?
61.7% of the 11,235 flights scheduled from LAX to SFO in the 12 months to July 2026 arrived less than 15 minutes after their scheduled time. The national share for the same period was 76.0%. Cancelled and diverted flights count as not on time.
Which airline has the highest on-time share from LAX to SFO?
Among reporting carriers with at least 60 flights on the route, SkyWest Airlines had the highest on-time share (68.3%), followed by United Airlines (64.2%) and Delta Air Lines (61.9%). Differences of a point or two on a few hundred flights are small.
What causes delays between Los Angeles and San Francisco?
For flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late, carriers attributed the delay minutes as follows: national aviation system 55%, late-arriving aircraft 25%, air carrier 19%, extreme weather 1%, security 0%. The categories are the carriers' own reports to BTS; weather that slows the wider system is usually recorded under the National Aviation System rather than extreme weather.
What time of day has the highest on-time share from LAX?
Flights scheduled to leave LAX from 6 am to 7 am arrived on time 93.6% of the time, the highest of any hour with enough flights to compare. The lowest was 8 pm to 9 pm at 42.2%. Delays tend to build through the day as late aircraft carry over to later flights.
Is it getting better?
The on-time share for the 12 months to July 2026 was 61.7%, down 14.4 points on the previous 12 months (76.1%). The monthly chart on this page shows each of the last 36 months. Across those months, August had the highest on-time share (76.5%) and May the lowest (59.2%).
Where does this data come from?
Every figure is computed from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance files, which list each scheduled domestic flight by the carriers required to report. This page covers August 2023 to July 2026. It shows totals and averages only; it is not a live flight-status service.
Provenance
Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance (1987 to present), monthly files August 2023 to July 2026, a US government work in the public domain. Figures are totals and averages over all scheduled flights by reporting carriers on the route; no individual flight or aircraft is identified. Times are local to the departure airport. The load factor and passenger counts from the BTS T-100 series are not included in this edition. See the methodology; report processing errors through corrections.