Route profile
PHL→LAX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, 2,402 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 50% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,755 flights. How this is calculated
PHL → LAX arrives on time 78.2% of the time; the return trip, LAX → PHL, arrives on time 80.0% of the time.
PHL → LAX spends 32.4 minutes on the ground on a 2,402-mile trip: 22.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PHL and 10.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where PHL to LAX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PHL to LAX struggles most at 9 PM: 63.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 15.2 points behind the 79.1% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
PHL to LAX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 83.2% arrive on time, 7.6 points ahead of the 75.6% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
March is kinder to PHL to LAX than to routes of similar length: 84.9% on time against 79.2%, 5.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7 points.
In June, PHL to LAX runs 3.4 points below routes of similar length, 71.0% on time to 74.4%.
Spirit Airlines does better on PHL to LAX than on its routes of similar length: 80.4% on time here, 75.9% there, 4.5 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.1 points.
PHL to LAX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 63.9% | routes of similar length | 79.1% | −15.2 pts | 219 here, 58,231 there |
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 83.2% | routes of similar length | 75.6% | +7.6 pts | 542 here, 56,231 there |
| Month: March | 84.9% | routes of similar length | 79.2% | +5.7 pts | 518 here, 86,556 there |
| Month: June | 71.0% | routes of similar length | 74.4% | −3.4 pts | 723 here, 95,790 there |
| Airline: Spirit Airlines | 80.4% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | +4.5 pts | 672 here, 25,556 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 2,402 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 PHL → LAX flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
PHL → LAX cancelled 84 of 7,755 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 92. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 86.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 106 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 84 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.
73 cancellations, 86.9% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
11 cancellations, 13.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
0 cancellations, 0.0% 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. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
84 coded cancellations were recorded on PHL → LAX; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
42 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 7,755 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LAX after arriving from PHL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.9% | 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 1.08% of the time and diverts 0.21% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,655 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 42 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,755 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PHL → LAX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.2% of the time, against 63.7% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 23.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 90.2% on time from 509 flights
- 7 AM: 88.5% on time from 404 flights
- 8 AM: 84.5% on time from 918 flights
- 9 AM: 84.5% on time from 325 flights
- 10 AM: 84.1% on time from 1,031 flights
- 11 AM: 77.7% on time from 122 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 83.2% on time from 548 flights
- 2 PM: 76.4% on time from 323 flights
- 3 PM: 81.3% on time from 765 flights
- 4 PM: 76.7% on time from 189 flights
- 5 PM: 70.5% on time from 657 flights
- 6 PM: 67.0% on time from 893 flights
- 7 PM: 60.1% on time from 332 flights
- 8 PM: 64.1% on time from 350 flights
- 9 PM: 63.9% on time from 223 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why PHL → LAX 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 PHL → LAX. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 6,956 | 78.3% | 1.11% | -6 min | 7.0% |
| Spirit Airlines | 680 | 80.4% | 1.03% | -9 min | 6.5% |
American Airlines flew 91.1% of the 7,636 flights listed.
Spirit Airlines arrived on time 2.1 percentage points more often than American 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
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 5.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 77.8%
- Feb: 78.8%
- Mar: 84.9%
- Apr: 81.0%
- May: 78.5%
- Jun: 71.0%
- Jul: 70.4%
- Aug: 74.1%
- Sep: 82.0%
- Oct: 83.9%
- Nov: 85.0%
- Dec: 79.2%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 14.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 68.0% from 245 flights
- August 2023: 84.5% from 247 flights
- September 2023: 82.6% from 240 flights
- October 2023: 84.5% from 220 flights
- November 2023: 89.0% from 181 flights
- December 2023: 90.8% from 163 flights
- January 2024: 76.5% from 202 flights
- February 2024: 80.6% from 191 flights
- March 2024: 83.7% from 186 flights
- April 2024: 88.9% from 207 flights
- May 2024: 77.3% from 216 flights
- June 2024: 71.6% from 236 flights
- July 2024: 73.3% from 246 flights
- August 2024: 62.2% from 256 flights
- September 2024: 76.4% from 212 flights
- October 2024: 83.8% from 217 flights
- November 2024: 84.2% from 203 flights
- December 2024: 80.7% from 207 flights
- January 2025: 79.8% from 181 flights
- February 2025: 76.0% from 158 flights
- March 2025: 85.2% from 184 flights
- April 2025: 73.0% from 201 flights
- May 2025: 77.6% from 221 flights
- June 2025: 68.2% from 266 flights
- July 2025: 70.1% from 263 flights
- August 2025: 75.7% from 252 flights
- September 2025: 87.1% from 211 flights
- October 2025: 83.5% from 243 flights
- November 2025: 81.5% from 169 flights
- December 2025: 66.5% from 175 flights
- January 2026: 77.1% from 154 flights
- February 2026: 79.5% from 139 flights
- March 2026: 86.2% from 155 flights
- April 2026: 80.8% from 198 flights
- May 2026: 80.4% from 224 flights
- June 2026: 73.5% from 235 flights
- July 2026: 70.1% from 251 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.3% against 75.8% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,755 PHL → LAX 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