BOS → LAX Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · BOSNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:54 UTC

Boston airport profile →

Destination · LAXNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Los Angeles airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

63/ 100Good

Better than 42% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 14,317 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

77.4%

10,971 of 14,176

Cancellation rate

0.84%

120 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-7 min

Average 6.9 min

Severe delays

8.4%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

81 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

14,317

4 carriers

BOS → LAX arrives on time 77.4% of the time; the return trip, LAX → BOS, arrives on time 80.2% of the time, a 2.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

BOS → LAX spends 32.7 minutes on the ground on a 2,611-mile trip: 21.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BOS and 10.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAX.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

Why BOS → LAX flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

BOS → LAX cancelled 120 of 14,317 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 119. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 47.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 251 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather47.5%

Airline43.3%

Air traffic9.2%

Security0.0%

Of 120 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 251

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

57 cancellations, 47.5% of the total.

The airline1 in 275

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

52 cancellations, 43.3% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 1,302

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

11 cancellations, 9.2% of the total.

Security—

A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.

0 cancellations, 0.0% 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.

120 coded cancellations were recorded on BOS → LAX; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

49 min late

against a median of 7 min early

Arrived an hour or more late8.4%

Typical delay when late81 min

Cancelled0.84%

Landed somewhere else0.15%

Percentiles over 14,317 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at LAX after arriving from BOS.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, BOS → LAX arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	38%	Likely to miss
45 min	22%	High risk
60 min	15%	Some risk
90 min	8.3%	Some risk
120 min	5.5%	Some 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 0.84% of the time and diverts 0.15% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 14,176 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 49 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 14,317 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

BOS → LAX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 84.8% of the time, against 60.5% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 24.3 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (BOS).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 8.4 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.0 points.

On-time arrival rate for BOS to LAX by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

55–59
60–64
65–69
70–74
75–79
80–84
85–89

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures before 6 AM and after 9 PM (394 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for BOS to LAX. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	81.3% on time236 flights	85.6% on time209 flights	86.7% on time218 flights	83.9% on time236 flights	87.9% on time233 flights	87.1% on time210 flights	88.6% on time239 flights
7 AM–8 AM	80.1% on time245 flights	84.5% on time255 flights	87.1% on time243 flights	82.0% on time251 flights	85.5% on time251 flights	85.2% on time238 flights	86.7% on time264 flights
8 AM–9 AM	80.2% on time282 flights	88.3% on time285 flights	85.3% on time287 flights	85.7% on time281 flights	82.3% on time280 flights	82.3% on time229 flights	83.3% on time259 flights
9 AM–10 AM	52 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score	58 flights, too few to score	59 flights, too few to score	34 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	84.7% on time190 flights	83.2% on time161 flights	89.2% on time187 flights	81.0% on time184 flights	82.2% on time187 flights	105 flights, too few to score	80.9% on time191 flights
11 AM–12 PM	40 flights, too few to score	45 flights, too few to score	40 flights, too few to score	39 flights, too few to score	42 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score	41 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	76 flights, too few to score	60 flights, too few to score	58 flights, too few to score	72 flights, too few to score	73 flights, too few to score	53 flights, too few to score	72 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	19 flights, too few to score	18 flights, too few to score	19 flights, too few to score	20 flights, too few to score	23 flights, too few to score	12 flights, too few to score	22 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	73 flights, too few to score	52 flights, too few to score	58 flights, too few to score	71 flights, too few to score	73 flights, too few to score	0 flights, too few to score	69 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	36 flights, too few to score	35 flights, too few to score	27 flights, too few to score	34 flights, too few to score	34 flights, too few to score	28 flights, too few to score	36 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	76.6% on time129 flights	97 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	74.2% on time128 flights	71.1% on time128 flights	101 flights, too few to score	67.2% on time129 flights
5 PM–6 PM	78.5% on time166 flights	69.4% on time196 flights	74.7% on time188 flights	70.4% on time160 flights	71.4% on time165 flights	76.1% on time183 flights	71.4% on time167 flights
6 PM–7 PM	71.8% on time307 flights	77.7% on time275 flights	74.7% on time289 flights	65.3% on time312 flights	67.8% on time315 flights	71.1% on time301 flights	63.3% on time300 flights
7 PM–8 PM	51 flights, too few to score	49 flights, too few to score	48 flights, too few to score	47 flights, too few to score	48 flights, too few to score	68 flights, too few to score	47 flights, too few to score
8 PM–9 PM	65.9% on time181 flights	119 flights, too few to score	68.3% on time139 flights	61.4% on time177 flights	60.6% on time180 flights	67.7% on time129 flights	55.5% on time179 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM84.8%

9 AM–12 PM82.5%

12–3 PM79.8%

3–6 PM73.8%

6–9 PM66.7%

9 PM–5 AM60.5%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why BOS → LAX runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

The airline43.3%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Late-arriving aircraft35.7%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Air traffic control18.7%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather2.1%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BOS → LAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

The harder-hit end is the one the flight leaves from, where a cancellation keeps it from departing at all. Bad weather cancels 3.9 times the normal rate at BOS against 1.3 times at LAX. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: BOS 5.3% against 1.4%, LAX 1.0% against 0.8%. Flights that did leave BOS in bad weather arrived on time 65.1% of the time, against 79.7% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from BOS and LAX in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	BOS	LAX
Cancelled in bad weather	5.3%	1.0%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.4%	0.8%
Arrived on time, bad weather	65.1%	78.9%
Arrived on time, normal hours	79.7%	81.4%
Departures in bad weather	60,840	60,639

Delta Air Lines (3.1% cancelled against 5.8% for the other carriers at BOS), American Airlines (4.7% cancelled against 5.5% for the other carriers at BOS) and United Airlines (4.6% cancelled against 5.4% for the other carriers at BOS) cancelled fewer departures from BOS in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly worse.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at BOS

All departures from BOS

Cancellation rates in bad weather at BOS for the airlines that fly BOS to LAX, against the other carriers at BOS in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
Delta Air Lines	10,971	3.1%below the others	5.8%
American Airlines	6,964	4.7%below the others	5.5%
United Airlines	5,328	4.6%below the others	5.4%
JetBlue	17,332	5.4%about level	5.1%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from BOS and LAX, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from BOS on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: BOS (airlines), LAX, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
JetBlue	5,118	76.2%	0.78%	-9 min	9.0%
Delta Air Lines	3,609	78.0%	0.94%	-5 min	7.6%
American Airlines	3,202	77.3%	0.81%	-9 min	9.0%
United Airlines	2,307	80.5%	0.78%	-6 min	6.5%

JetBlue flew 36.0% of the 14,236 flights listed.

United Airlines arrived on time 4.3 percentage points more often than JetBlue on this route.

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
DL479 Delta Air Lines	6:10 AM	1,042	82.4%
B6287 JetBlue	6:00 AM	1,000	83.8%
B6387 JetBlue	2:45 PM	935	79.2%
AA2455 American Airlines	7:00 AM	911	85.4%
B6687 JetBlue	8:00 AM	724	86.0%
DL318 Delta Air Lines	4:30 PM	704	74.3%

B6687 (8:00 AM) arrived on time 86.0% of the time, 11.7 points more often than DL318 (4:30 PM) at 74.3%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon75.6%

Tue79.4%

Wed81.0%

Thu76.2%

Fri76.0%

Sat78.6%

Sun75.4%

Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.6 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

July is historically the weakest month and March the strongest, a spread of 13.8 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 75.0% against 80.8% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.8 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 14,317 BOS → 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

BOS airport LAX airport Return direction LAX → BOS

BOS→LAX

Right now

Route reliability

Why BOS → LAX flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why BOS → LAX runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at BOS

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology