Route profile
LAX→TUS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Los Angeles to Tucson, 451 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 7,925 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
LAX → TUS arrives on time 81.3% of the time; the return trip, TUS → LAX, arrives on time 85.3% of the time, a 4.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
LAX → TUS spends 21.7 minutes on the ground on a 451-mile trip: 17.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LAX and 4.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at TUS.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where LAX to TUS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LAX to TUS is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 85.2% arrive on time, 16.4 points ahead of the 68.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 16.7 points.
LAX to TUS struggles most at 10 AM: 79.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5 points behind the 84.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
July is kinder to LAX to TUS than to routes of similar length: 79.2% on time against 69.8%, 9.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.5 points.
In February, LAX to TUS runs 7 points below routes of similar length, 74.8% on time to 81.8%. Against all other routes the gap is 6.7 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on LAX to TUS arrive on time 73.1% of the time, 5.2 points below the 78.3% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 4.3 points.
LAX to TUS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 85.2% | routes of similar length | 68.8% | +16.4 pts | 413 here, 87,548 there |
| Hour: 10 AM departures | 79.4% | routes of similar length | 84.4% | −5.0 pts | 431 here, 106,671 there |
| Month: July | 79.2% | routes of similar length | 69.8% | +9.4 pts | 797 here, 174,568 there |
| Month: February | 74.8% | routes of similar length | 81.8% | −7.0 pts | 607 here, 110,566 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 73.1% | routes of similar length | 78.3% | −5.2 pts | 1,408 here, 478,234 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 451 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
40 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 7,925 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at TUS after arriving from LAX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.4% | 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 0.19% of the time and diverts 0.09% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,903 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 40 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,925 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LAX → TUS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.8% of the time, against 60.9% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 27.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 89.1% on time from 313 flights
- 9 AM: 88.1% on time from 1,672 flights
- 10 AM: 79.4% on time from 432 flights
- 11 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 75.6% on time from 158 flights
- 2 PM: 76.4% on time from 1,210 flights
- 3 PM: 79.8% on time from 833 flights
- 4 PM: 80.4% on time from 275 flights
- 5 PM: 80.2% on time from 344 flights
- 6 PM: 85.2% on time from 413 flights
- 7 PM: 78.9% on time from 1,634 flights
- 8 PM: 79.8% on time from 263 flights
- 9 PM: 61.4% on time from 128 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why LAX → TUS 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
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
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 → TUS. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 6,512 | 83.0% | 0.18% | -7 min | 7.1% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,413 | 73.1% | 0.21% | 0 min | 7.1% |
SkyWest Airlines flew 82.2% of the 7,925 flights listed.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 9.9 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.
OO3766 (9:35 AM) arrived on time 89.5% of the time, 15.8 points more often than OO3776 (2:45 PM) at 73.7%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 8.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.9%
- Feb: 74.8%
- Mar: 74.6%
- Apr: 85.7%
- May: 83.9%
- Jun: 79.2%
- Jul: 79.2%
- Aug: 80.7%
- Sep: 85.4%
- Oct: 80.1%
- Nov: 87.9%
- Dec: 82.0%
March is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 13.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 84.2% from 184 flights
- August 2023: 84.4% from 201 flights
- September 2023: 87.9% from 224 flights
- October 2023: 87.7% from 235 flights
- November 2023: 91.4% from 209 flights
- December 2023: 85.7% from 196 flights
- January 2024: 81.5% from 196 flights
- February 2024: 74.4% from 195 flights
- March 2024: 70.4% from 216 flights
- April 2024: 83.8% from 210 flights
- May 2024: 79.4% from 218 flights
- June 2024: 79.2% from 179 flights
- July 2024: 80.7% from 177 flights
- August 2024: 78.8% from 208 flights
- September 2024: 84.9% from 205 flights
- October 2024: 75.5% from 216 flights
- November 2024: 88.2% from 228 flights
- December 2024: 80.8% from 240 flights
- January 2025: 81.0% from 227 flights
- February 2025: 73.6% from 216 flights
- March 2025: 74.6% from 249 flights
- April 2025: 86.9% from 236 flights
- May 2025: 89.7% from 243 flights
- June 2025: 85.0% from 208 flights
- July 2025: 80.9% from 209 flights
- August 2025: 79.0% from 206 flights
- September 2025: 83.2% from 196 flights
- October 2025: 76.4% from 212 flights
- November 2025: 84.2% from 223 flights
- December 2025: 80.2% from 223 flights
- January 2026: 83.3% from 203 flights
- February 2026: 76.5% from 196 flights
- March 2026: 78.6% from 229 flights
- April 2026: 86.2% from 226 flights
- May 2026: 82.1% from 234 flights
- June 2026: 73.9% from 223 flights
- July 2026: 72.5% from 229 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.7% against 81.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,925 LAX → TUS 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