Route profile
BNA→LAX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Nashville to Los Angeles, 1,797 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 65% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,746 flights. How this is calculated
BNA → LAX arrives on time 79.4% of the time; the return trip, LAX → BNA, arrives on time 82.4% of the time, a 2.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
BNA → LAX spends 26.2 minutes on the ground on a 1,797-mile trip: 15.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BNA and 10.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where BNA to LAX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BNA to LAX struggles most at 10 PM: 55.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 21 points behind the 76.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.8 points.
BNA to LAX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 74.8% arrive on time, 8.8 points ahead of the 66.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7 points.
March is kinder to BNA to LAX than to routes of similar length: 86.7% on time against 78.4%, 8.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.8 points.
In May, BNA to LAX runs 4.7 points below routes of similar length, 71.1% on time to 75.8%. Against all other routes the gap is 4.2 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on BNA to LAX than on its routes of similar length: 86.8% on time here, 81.9% there, 4.9 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
BNA to LAX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 55.9% | routes of similar length | 76.9% | −21.0 pts | 127 here, 33,969 there |
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 74.8% | routes of similar length | 66.0% | +8.8 pts | 523 here, 45,611 there |
| Month: March | 86.7% | routes of similar length | 78.4% | +8.3 pts | 542 here, 99,087 there |
| Month: May | 71.1% | routes of similar length | 75.8% | −4.7 pts | 591 here, 105,304 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 86.8% | routes of similar length | 81.9% | +4.9 pts | 2,701 here, 319,924 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 1,797 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why BNA → LAX flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
BNA → LAX cancelled 53 of 6,746 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 127. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 54.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 233 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 53 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
29 cancellations, 54.7% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
22 cancellations, 41.5% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
1 cancellation, 1.9% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
1 cancellation, 1.9% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
53 coded cancellations were recorded on BNA → LAX; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
37 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 6,746 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LAX after arriving from BNA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.4% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 0.79% of the time and diverts 0.09% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,687 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 37 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,746 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BNA → LAX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.1% of the time, against 58.8% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 29.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 75.3% on time from 205 flights
- 6 AM: 88.8% on time from 849 flights
- 7 AM: 88.7% on time from 998 flights
- 8 AM: 90.1% on time from 723 flights
- 9 AM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 81.9% on time from 471 flights
- 3 PM: 81.6% on time from 704 flights
- 4 PM: 72.5% on time from 390 flights
- 5 PM: 67.6% on time from 561 flights
- 6 PM: 67.2% on time from 397 flights
- 7 PM: 74.8% on time from 527 flights
- 8 PM: 73.4% on time from 306 flights
- 9 PM: 60.1% on time from 307 flights
- 10 PM: 55.9% on time from 127 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why BNA → LAX runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BNA → LAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 2,724 | 86.8% | 0.84% | -11 min | 3.7% |
| Southwest Airlines | 2,370 | 73.7% | 0.55% | -1 min | 5.4% |
| American Airlines | 1,197 | 75.3% | 0.58% | -6 min | 10.9% |
| Spirit Airlines | 455 | 75.7% | 2.20% | -3 min | 9.9% |
Delta Air Lines flew 40.4% of the 6,746 flights listed. Spirit Airlines cancelled 2.20% of its flights here against 0.55% for Southwest Airlines.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 13.1 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 10.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.2%
- Feb: 84.2%
- Mar: 86.7%
- Apr: 76.0%
- May: 71.1%
- Jun: 69.5%
- Jul: 71.0%
- Aug: 82.0%
- Sep: 82.5%
- Oct: 84.6%
- Nov: 87.0%
- Dec: 83.1%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 17.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 74.1% from 186 flights
- August 2023: 77.5% from 191 flights
- September 2023: 76.7% from 181 flights
- October 2023: 84.7% from 203 flights
- November 2023: 89.1% from 192 flights
- December 2023: 88.5% from 192 flights
- January 2024: 81.2% from 157 flights
- February 2024: 81.7% from 142 flights
- March 2024: 85.1% from 175 flights
- April 2024: 83.3% from 180 flights
- May 2024: 70.1% from 195 flights
- June 2024: 75.3% from 215 flights
- July 2024: 68.1% from 221 flights
- August 2024: 86.8% from 186 flights
- September 2024: 85.4% from 172 flights
- October 2024: 91.9% from 174 flights
- November 2024: 89.3% from 140 flights
- December 2024: 87.2% from 149 flights
- January 2025: 89.3% from 124 flights
- February 2025: 90.4% from 126 flights
- March 2025: 83.7% from 172 flights
- April 2025: 83.5% from 170 flights
- May 2025: 74.2% from 183 flights
- June 2025: 68.3% from 192 flights
- July 2025: 75.0% from 199 flights
- August 2025: 81.8% from 188 flights
- September 2025: 85.6% from 188 flights
- October 2025: 78.4% from 208 flights
- November 2025: 82.9% from 176 flights
- December 2025: 74.7% from 195 flights
- January 2026: 83.1% from 164 flights
- February 2026: 81.3% from 152 flights
- March 2026: 90.8% from 199 flights
- April 2026: 62.8% from 201 flights
- May 2026: 69.3% from 215 flights
- June 2026: 65.1% from 232 flights
- July 2026: 67.6% from 211 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.4% against 83.0% in the 12 months before — declining by 6.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,746 BNA → LAX flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed