Route profile
IND→LAX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Indianapolis to Los Angeles, 1,814 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 71% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,237 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IND → LAX arrives on time 82.7% of the time; the return trip, LAX → IND, arrives on time 81.2% of the time.
IND → LAX spends 24.9 minutes on the ground on a 1,814-mile trip: 15.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IND and 9.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 98% of 5,368 comparable routes.
83.8% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 83.9% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where IND to LAX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IND to LAX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 83.1% arrive on time, 10.9 points ahead of the 72.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.3 points.
IND to LAX struggles most at 6 AM: 84.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5 points behind the 89.5% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
IND to LAX holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 86.3% on time to their 76.3%, a 10 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
June is kinder to IND to LAX than to routes of similar length: 82.4% on time against 72.4%, 10 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.7 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on IND to LAX than on its routes of similar length: 86.0% on time here, 81.6% there, 4.4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.5 points.
IND to LAX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 83.1% | routes of similar length | 72.2% | +10.9 pts | 785 here, 83,959 there |
| Hour: 6 AM departures | 84.5% | routes of similar length | 89.5% | −5.0 pts | 206 here, 79,270 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 86.3% | routes of similar length | 76.3% | +10.0 pts | 364 here, 186,700 there |
| Month: June | 82.4% | routes of similar length | 72.4% | +10.0 pts | 210 here, 112,576 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 86.0% | routes of similar length | 81.6% | +4.4 pts | 860 here, 308,904 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 1,814 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
32 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 2,237 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LAX after arriving from IND.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.9% | 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 0.58% of the time and diverts 0.13% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,221 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 32 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,237 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why IND → 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for IND → LAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 1,234 | 81.4% | 0.49% | -9 min | 7.2% |
| Delta Air Lines | 867 | 86.0% | 0.58% | -11 min | 4.0% |
American Airlines flew 58.7% of the 2,101 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 4.6 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL861 Delta Air Lines | 7:05 AM | 765 | 85.9% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Friday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 10.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.4%
- Feb: 77.7%
- Mar: 86.6%
- Apr: 86.0%
- May: 80.4%
- Jun: 82.4%
- Jul: 73.0%
- Aug: 84.5%
- Sep: 87.7%
- Oct: 92.3%
- Nov: 86.6%
- Dec: 81.4%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 19.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 83.8% against 83.9% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,237 IND → 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