Route profile
LAX→BWI
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Los Angeles to Baltimore, 2,329 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 86% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,373 flights. How this is calculated
LAX → BWI arrives on time 82.0% of the time; the return trip, BWI → LAX, arrives on time 75.6% of the time, a 6.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
LAX → BWI spends 22.2 minutes on the ground on a 2,329-mile trip: 16.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LAX and 5.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at BWI.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 93% of 4,467 comparable routes.
84.6% on time on the best day (Tuesday) against 80.1% on the worst (Friday).
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where LAX to BWI differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LAX to BWI is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 85.3% arrive on time, 6.6 points ahead of the 78.7% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.9 points.
LAX to BWI struggles most at 4 PM: 68.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 6.4 points behind the 74.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
LAX to BWI holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 81.0% on time to their 76.2%, a 4.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.2 points.
May is kinder to LAX to BWI than to routes of similar length: 84.9% on time against 77.8%, 7.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.7 points.
United Airlines does better on LAX to BWI than on its routes of similar length: 89.7% on time here, 81.4% there, 8.3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 9.8 points.
LAX to BWI against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 85.3% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | +6.6 pts | 607 here, 58,473 there |
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 68.5% | routes of similar length | 74.9% | −6.4 pts | 321 here, 56,078 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 81.0% | routes of similar length | 76.2% | +4.8 pts | 747 here, 162,567 there |
| Month: May | 84.9% | routes of similar length | 77.8% | +7.1 pts | 485 here, 96,862 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 89.7% | routes of similar length | 81.4% | +8.3 pts | 1,599 here, 233,031 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 2,329 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 LAX → BWI flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LAX → BWI cancelled 52 of 5,373 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 103. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 51.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 199 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 52 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.
27 cancellations, 51.9% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
23 cancellations, 44.2% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
2 cancellations, 3.8% of the total.
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.
52 coded cancellations were recorded on LAX → BWI; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
28 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 5,373 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BWI after arriving from LAX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.0% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.8% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.1% | 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 0.97% of the time and diverts 0.34% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,303 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 28 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,373 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LAX → BWI flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.2% of the time, against 68.5% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 20.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 89.4% on time from 486 flights
- 6 AM: 93.6% on time from 408 flights
- 7 AM: 86.5% on time from 211 flights
- 8 AM: 86.6% on time from 497 flights
- 9 AM: 86.0% on time from 324 flights
- 10 AM: 84.5% on time from 251 flights
- 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 72.1% on time from 195 flights
- 1 PM: 69.9% on time from 292 flights
- 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 69.3% on time from 202 flights
- 4 PM: 68.5% on time from 324 flights
- 5 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 85.3% on time from 608 flights
- 10 PM: 77.3% on time from 566 flights
- 11 PM: 85.5% on time from 608 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why LAX → BWI 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
screening or terminal security incidents
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for LAX → BWI. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 2,706 | 80.0% | 0.67% | -4 min | 3.7% |
| United Airlines | 1,624 | 89.7% | 1.05% | -11 min | 2.3% |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,043 | 75.2% | 1.63% | -3 min | 7.0% |
Southwest Airlines flew 50.4% of the 5,373 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 14.5 percentage points more often than Spirit 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA1605 United Airlines | 11:59 PM | 833 | 90.2% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.0%
- Feb: 86.4%
- Mar: 80.5%
- Apr: 86.7%
- May: 84.9%
- Jun: 78.4%
- Jul: 74.4%
- Aug: 78.1%
- Sep: 85.8%
- Oct: 86.0%
- Nov: 84.9%
- Dec: 78.4%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 12.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 71.3% from 146 flights
- August 2023: 72.2% from 155 flights
- September 2023: 84.2% from 149 flights
- October 2023: 83.9% from 153 flights
- November 2023: 77.7% from 148 flights
- December 2023: 72.1% from 122 flights
- January 2024: 74.1% from 121 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- March 2024: 74.8% from 139 flights
- April 2024: 83.5% from 135 flights
- May 2024: 82.7% from 185 flights
- June 2024: 74.2% from 202 flights
- July 2024: 76.2% from 211 flights
- August 2024: 76.7% from 192 flights
- September 2024: 90.0% from 151 flights
- October 2024: 82.2% from 129 flights
- November 2024: 90.4% from 136 flights
- December 2024: 81.6% from 136 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (101)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- March 2025: 96.7% from 121 flights
- April 2025: 93.2% from 149 flights
- May 2025: 90.4% from 157 flights
- June 2025: 83.7% from 167 flights
- July 2025: 81.5% from 176 flights
- August 2025: 85.1% from 170 flights
- September 2025: 83.4% from 169 flights
- October 2025: 91.0% from 166 flights
- November 2025: 87.3% from 134 flights
- December 2025: 81.1% from 122 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (107)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (113)
- March 2026: 72.1% from 143 flights
- April 2026: 83.0% from 141 flights
- May 2026: 81.8% from 143 flights
- June 2026: 78.1% from 138 flights
- July 2026: 65.7% from 141 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.9% against 87.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,373 LAX → BWI 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