Route profile
LAX→ABQ
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, 677 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 96% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,992 flights. How this is calculated
LAX → ABQ arrives on time 86.3% of the time; the return trip, ABQ → LAX, arrives on time 88.2% of the time, a 2.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
LAX → ABQ spends 24.4 minutes on the ground on a 677-mile trip: 17.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LAX and 6.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at ABQ.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route stays close to typical even on its worst days, a smaller gap than 93% of 4,598 comparable routes.
A typical arrival is 8 min early, and the worst tenth are only 30 minutes worse than that.
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 4,598 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where LAX to ABQ differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LAX to ABQ is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 86.5% arrive on time, 18.8 points ahead of the 67.7% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 18.7 points.
LAX to ABQ holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 88.9% on time to their 79.1%, a 9.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 9.8 points.
July is kinder to LAX to ABQ than to routes of similar length: 84.4% on time against 68.6%, 15.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 14.7 points.
SkyWest Airlines does better on LAX to ABQ than on its routes of similar length: 88.0% on time here, 83.2% there, 4.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.8 points.
LAX to ABQ against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 86.5% | routes of similar length | 67.7% | +18.8 pts | 1,125 here, 129,005 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 88.9% | routes of similar length | 79.1% | +9.8 pts | 847 here, 279,733 there |
| Month: July | 84.4% | routes of similar length | 68.6% | +15.8 pts | 783 here, 254,725 there |
| Airline: SkyWest Airlines | 88.0% | routes of similar length | 83.2% | +4.8 pts | 5,528 here, 136,459 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 677 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
22 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 6,992 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ABQ after arriving from LAX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 28% | High risk |
| 45 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 7.6% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.6% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.0% | 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 0.13% of the time and diverts 0.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,971 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 22 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,992 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LAX → ABQ flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.1% of the time, against 78.4% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 10.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 91.9% on time from 125 flights
- 8 AM: 89.1% on time from 1,760 flights
- 9 AM: 89.2% on time from 517 flights
- 10 AM: 81.4% on time from 194 flights
- 11 AM: 89.3% on time from 207 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 87.3% on time from 189 flights
- 2 PM: 88.2% on time from 1,117 flights
- 3 PM: 84.0% on time from 264 flights
- 4 PM: 86.9% on time from 176 flights
- 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 76.9% on time from 437 flights
- 7 PM: 86.5% on time from 1,125 flights
- 8 PM: 81.2% on time from 528 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why LAX → ABQ 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 LAX → ABQ. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 5,543 | 88.0% | 0.11% | -10 min | 3.5% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,426 | 79.5% | 0.14% | -2 min | 4.1% |
SkyWest Airlines flew 79.5% of the 6,969 flights listed.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 8.5 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
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 5.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 91.1%
- Feb: 86.0%
- Mar: 86.3%
- Apr: 89.9%
- May: 86.2%
- Jun: 78.9%
- Jul: 84.4%
- Aug: 88.8%
- Sep: 86.8%
- Oct: 86.9%
- Nov: 89.3%
- Dec: 81.3%
June is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 12.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 88.0% from 208 flights
- August 2023: 87.7% from 212 flights
- September 2023: 92.0% from 214 flights
- October 2023: 81.9% from 226 flights
- November 2023: 86.9% from 192 flights
- December 2023: 81.4% from 177 flights
- January 2024: 92.6% from 175 flights
- February 2024: 83.9% from 163 flights
- March 2024: 83.9% from 174 flights
- April 2024: 87.3% from 198 flights
- May 2024: 81.7% from 208 flights
- June 2024: 68.7% from 196 flights
- July 2024: 80.9% from 199 flights
- August 2024: 89.1% from 183 flights
- September 2024: 79.4% from 175 flights
- October 2024: 90.8% from 231 flights
- November 2024: 93.7% from 189 flights
- December 2024: 80.6% from 191 flights
- January 2025: 93.9% from 165 flights
- February 2025: 89.1% from 156 flights
- March 2025: 91.1% from 181 flights
- April 2025: 94.6% from 203 flights
- May 2025: 94.6% from 203 flights
- June 2025: 82.9% from 176 flights
- July 2025: 86.5% from 178 flights
- August 2025: 89.7% from 175 flights
- September 2025: 88.0% from 166 flights
- October 2025: 88.3% from 196 flights
- November 2025: 87.3% from 177 flights
- December 2025: 81.8% from 187 flights
- January 2026: 86.5% from 156 flights
- February 2026: 85.1% from 163 flights
- March 2026: 84.1% from 195 flights
- April 2026: 87.7% from 205 flights
- May 2026: 82.5% from 207 flights
- June 2026: 85.5% from 193 flights
- July 2026: 82.3% from 199 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.7% against 89.0% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,992 LAX → ABQ 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