Route profile
LAX→MEM
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Los Angeles to Memphis, 1,619 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 52% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,139 flights. How this is calculated
LAX → MEM arrives on time 77.7% of the time; the return trip, MEM → LAX, arrives on time 77.6% of the time.
LAX → MEM spends 23.0 minutes on the ground on a 1,619-mile trip: 16.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LAX and 6.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at MEM.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability on this route has fallen unusually sharply over the past year, a bigger swing than 96% of 5,368 comparable routes.
66.9% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 80.1% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), a change of 13.2 points.
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 LAX to MEM differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LAX to MEM is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 85.7% arrive on time, 10.7 points ahead of the 75.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.6 points.
Delta Air Lines’ flights on LAX to MEM arrive on time 73.4% of the time, 9.2 points below the 82.6% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 8.1 points.
LAX to MEM against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 85.7% | routes of similar length | 75.0% | +10.7 pts | 168 here, 92,905 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 73.4% | routes of similar length | 82.6% | −9.2 pts | 759 here, 308,648 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 1,619 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
48 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 1,139 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MEM after arriving from LAX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 42% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.4% | 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 0.70% of the time and diverts 0.61% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,124 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 48 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,139 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LAX → MEM flights departing 12–3 PM arrived on time 85.6% of the time, against 67.6% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 18.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 85.7% on time from 171 flights
- 2 PM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 67.1% on time from 142 flights
- 6 PM: 73.5% on time from 582 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why LAX → MEM 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for LAX → MEM. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 769 | 73.4% | 0.65% | 0 min | 9.1% |
| Spirit Airlines | 233 | 87.8% | 1.29% | -14 min | 5.7% |
Delta Air Lines flew 76.7% of the 1,002 flights listed.
Spirit Airlines arrived on time 14.4 percentage points more often than Delta Air Lines 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL1080 Delta Air Lines | 6:15 PM | 669 | 73.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Thursday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 7.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 66.9% against 80.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 13.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,139 LAX → MEM 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