Route profile
SAN→LAX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Diego to Los Angeles, 109 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 94% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,052 flights. How this is calculated
SAN → LAX arrives on time 88.5% of the time; the return trip, LAX → SAN, arrives on time 85.9% of the time, a 2.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SAN → LAX spends 37.4 minutes on the ground on a 109-mile trip: 25.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SAN and 11.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route holds up about the same all year, a steadier seasonal pattern than 98% of 3,357 comparable routes.
91.9% on time in its best month (August) against 83.5% in its worst (December).
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 3,357 in the comparison.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
18 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 7,052 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LAX after arriving from SAN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 25% | High risk |
| 45 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 7.1% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.9% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.6% | 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 0.50% of the time and diverts 0.00% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,017 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 18 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,052 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SAN → LAX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.6% of the time, against 83.1% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 10.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 93.6% on time from 2,251 flights
- 7 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 87.0% on time from 1,236 flights
- 11 AM: 84.4% on time from 672 flights
- 12 PM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 88.3% on time from 137 flights
- 3 PM: 84.3% on time from 286 flights
- 4 PM: 77.1% on time from 167 flights
- 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 84.6% on time from 603 flights
- 7 PM: 85.6% on time from 386 flights
- 8 PM: 87.7% on time from 999 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SAN → LAX runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SAN → 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 6,796 | 88.3% | 0.50% | -9 min | 4.0% |
| United Airlines | 256 | 92.5% | 0.39% | -6 min | 2.0% |
SkyWest Airlines flew 96.4% of the 7,052 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 4.2 percentage points more often than SkyWest 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 Friday the least, a gap of 7.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 89.3%
- Feb: 88.0%
- Mar: 88.4%
- Apr: 91.2%
- May: 90.8%
- Jun: 87.0%
- Jul: 88.7%
- Aug: 91.9%
- Sep: 88.2%
- Oct: 83.9%
- Nov: 90.0%
- Dec: 83.5%
December is historically the weakest month and August the strongest, a spread of 8.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 91.4% from 186 flights
- August 2023: 90.2% from 186 flights
- September 2023: 93.1% from 175 flights
- October 2023: 84.9% from 186 flights
- November 2023: 93.8% from 176 flights
- December 2023: 91.0% from 168 flights
- January 2024: 92.7% from 178 flights
- February 2024: 89.7% from 165 flights
- March 2024: 91.3% from 184 flights
- April 2024: 90.0% from 180 flights
- May 2024: 89.2% from 186 flights
- June 2024: 82.2% from 180 flights
- July 2024: 81.7% from 186 flights
- August 2024: 93.0% from 185 flights
- September 2024: 82.0% from 178 flights
- October 2024: 78.3% from 186 flights
- November 2024: 91.5% from 176 flights
- December 2024: 80.7% from 172 flights
- January 2025: 88.4% from 181 flights
- February 2025: 84.5% from 168 flights
- March 2025: 84.7% from 177 flights
- April 2025: 87.7% from 203 flights
- May 2025: 93.0% from 229 flights
- June 2025: 87.8% from 205 flights
- July 2025: 93.3% from 209 flights
- August 2025: 92.4% from 211 flights
- September 2025: 89.4% from 209 flights
- October 2025: 88.0% from 208 flights
- November 2025: 84.7% from 193 flights
- December 2025: 79.1% from 188 flights
- January 2026: 87.0% from 196 flights
- February 2026: 89.7% from 185 flights
- March 2026: 89.1% from 202 flights
- April 2026: 95.7% from 207 flights
- May 2026: 89.7% from 224 flights
- June 2026: 90.4% from 209 flights
- July 2026: 87.9% from 215 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 88.7% against 87.3% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,052 SAN → 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