Route profile
LAX→CLE
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Los Angeles to Cleveland, 2,052 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 97% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,279 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
LAX → CLE arrives on time 88.8% of the time; the return trip, CLE → LAX, arrives on time 86.8% of the time, a 2.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
LAX → CLE spends 26.2 minutes on the ground on a 2,052-mile trip: 19.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LAX and 7.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLE.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Unlike most, it barely matters what time you fly this route, a steadier spread than 98% of 4,023 comparable routes.
92.7% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 88.0% for 9 PM–5 AM, a narrow gap either way.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where LAX to CLE differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LAX to CLE is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 89.7% arrive on time, 14.1 points ahead of the 75.6% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.6 points.
LAX to CLE holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 90.2% on time to their 76.0%, a 14.2 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 15.4 points.
June is kinder to LAX to CLE than to routes of similar length: 89.3% on time against 73.8%, 15.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 16.6 points.
United Airlines does better on LAX to CLE than on its routes of similar length: 90.5% on time here, 81.6% there, 8.9 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 10.6 points.
LAX to CLE against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 89.7% | routes of similar length | 75.6% | +14.1 pts | 263 here, 46,970 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 90.2% | routes of similar length | 76.0% | +14.2 pts | 336 here, 157,020 there |
| Month: June | 89.3% | routes of similar length | 73.8% | +15.5 pts | 234 here, 95,263 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 90.5% | routes of similar length | 81.6% | +8.9 pts | 1,895 here, 188,489 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 2,052 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
17 min late
against a median of 12 min early
Percentiles over 2,279 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLE after arriving from LAX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 23% | High risk |
| 45 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 6.8% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.7% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.3% | 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 0.61% of the time and diverts 0.22% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,260 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 17 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,279 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LAX → CLE flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.7% of the time, against 88.0% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 4.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 93.1% on time from 380 flights
- 9 AM: 86.6% on time from 248 flights
- 10 AM: 88.5% on time from 285 flights
- 11 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 89.7% on time from 266 flights
- 2 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 85.6% on time from 540 flights
- 10 PM: 91.7% on time from 243 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why LAX → CLE runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for LAX → CLE. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on LAX → CLE, at 50.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, though departure time makes little difference here: the best and worst windows are 5 points apart.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,905 | 90.5% | 0.42% | -13 min | 3.0% |
| Spirit Airlines | 259 | 78.3% | 1.93% | -5 min | 9.1% |
United Airlines flew 88.0% of the 2,164 flights listed. Spirit Airlines cancelled 1.93% of its flights here against 0.42% for United Airlines.
United Airlines arrived on time 12.2 percentage points more often than Spirit Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Monday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 6.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 88.3%
- Feb: no data
- Mar: 93.7%
- Apr: 91.3%
- May: 88.2%
- Jun: 89.3%
- Jul: 80.6%
- Aug: 87.3%
- Sep: 93.2%
- Oct: 93.7%
- Nov: 90.0%
- Dec: 86.1%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 13.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 91.3% against 89.1% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,279 LAX → CLE 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