Route profile
SEA→LAX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Seattle to Los Angeles, 954 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 85% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 23,181 flights. How this is calculated
SEA → LAX arrives on time 82.5% of the time; the return trip, LAX → SEA, arrives on time 84.8% of the time, a 2.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SEA → LAX spends 33.5 minutes on the ground on a 954-mile trip: 21.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SEA and 12.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 94% of 2,692 comparable routes.
United Airlines arrived on time 90.8% of the time, against 70.2% for JetBlue, flying the exact same route.
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 2,692 in the comparison.
Why SEA → LAX flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SEA → LAX cancelled 177 of 23,181 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 131. The reason filed most often was the airline, 78.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 168 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 177 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
138 cancellations, 78.0% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
35 cancellations, 19.8% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
4 cancellations, 2.3% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
177 coded cancellations were recorded on SEA → LAX; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
28 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 23,181 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LAX after arriving from SEA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 36% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.3% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.1% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.4% | 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 0.76% of the time and diverts 0.04% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 22,994 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 28 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 23,181 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SEA → LAX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.3% of the time, against 67.8% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 20.5 percentage points.
By day and hour
On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (SEA).
Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 5.2 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.4 points.
| Hour | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
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| 9 PM–10 PM |
On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time
- 60–64
- 65–69
- 70–74
- 75–79
- 80–84
- 85–89
- 90–94
- Fewer than 120 flights, not scored
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.
No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures before 6 AM and after 10 PM (461 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.
View as tableHide table
| Hour | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 AM–7 AM | 89.1% on time371 flights | 92.2% on time350 flights | 90.0% on time331 flights | 89.9% on time389 flights | 87.7% on time377 flights | 86.6% on time386 flights | 87.8% on time376 flights |
| 7 AM–8 AM | 88.4% on time296 flights | 86.1% on time248 flights | 93.1% on time247 flights | 89.6% on time298 flights | 86.8% on time304 flights | 87.2% on time297 flights | 91.3% on time264 flights |
| 8 AM–9 AM | 84.4% on time167 flights | 83.3% on time152 flights | 83.0% on time148 flights | 88.1% on time165 flights | 83.8% on time168 flights | 88.6% on time140 flights | 85.8% on time166 flights |
| 9 AM–10 AM | 87.1% on time157 flights | 89.9% on time159 flights | 85.8% on time155 flights | 90.3% on time155 flights | 86.9% on time160 flights | 87.3% on time151 flights | 86.1% on time151 flights |
| 10 AM–11 AM | 81.7% on time246 flights | 86.5% on time201 flights | 86.5% on time195 flights | 80.8% on time241 flights | 82.4% on time229 flights | 86.3% on time193 flights | 85.2% on time206 flights |
| 11 AM–12 PM | 85.3% on time227 flights | 83.8% on time229 flights | 81.3% on time225 flights | 74.9% on time220 flights | 80.7% on time224 flights | 83.3% on time222 flights | 77.2% on time224 flights |
| 12 PM–1 PM | 84.7% on time198 flights | 86.2% on time188 flights | 89.6% on time185 flights | 84.4% on time199 flights | 87.1% on time188 flights | 86.7% on time166 flights | 84.0% on time188 flights |
| 1 PM–2 PM | 80.9% on time142 flights | 85.3% on time143 flights | 85.8% on time148 flights | 70.9% on time144 flights | 80.5% on time136 flights | 97 flights, too few to score | 76.5% on time139 flights |
| 2 PM–3 PM | 85.1% on time215 flights | 86.9% on time207 flights | 89.4% on time199 flights | 83.4% on time207 flights | 79.9% on time202 flights | 84.1% on time152 flights | 79.3% on time172 flights |
| 3 PM–4 PM | 75.8% on time160 flights | 83.7% on time155 flights | 83.9% on time161 flights | 78.3% on time167 flights | 78.5% on time161 flights | 81.5% on time131 flights | 76.5% on time157 flights |
| 4 PM–5 PM | 84.0% on time131 flights | 112 flights, too few to score | 109 flights, too few to score | 81.2% on time133 flights | 77.5% on time131 flights | 85 flights, too few to score | 70.8% on time139 flights |
| 5 PM–6 PM | 81.4% on time422 flights | 85.3% on time423 flights | 82.5% on time416 flights | 74.8% on time425 flights | 76.4% on time417 flights | 84.0% on time376 flights | 73.3% on time428 flights |
| 6 PM–7 PM | 73.9% on time143 flights | 101 flights, too few to score | 104 flights, too few to score | 75.6% on time133 flights | 74.8% on time128 flights | 106 flights, too few to score | 66.9% on time128 flights |
| 7 PM–8 PM | 77.7% on time267 flights | 80.2% on time208 flights | 82.4% on time205 flights | 75.4% on time273 flights | 75.1% on time261 flights | 82.6% on time214 flights | 76.3% on time274 flights |
| 8 PM–9 PM | 74.8% on time135 flights | 104 flights, too few to score | 112 flights, too few to score | 72.9% on time133 flights | 74.0% on time146 flights | 85 flights, too few to score | 67.6% on time138 flights |
| 9 PM–10 PM | 74.5% on time212 flights | 72 flights, too few to score | 65 flights, too few to score | 63.9% on time207 flights | 70.3% on time202 flights | 86 flights, too few to score | 65.0% on time214 flights |
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 89.7% on time from 460 flights
- 6 AM: 89.0% on time from 2,580 flights
- 7 AM: 88.8% on time from 1,954 flights
- 8 AM: 85.3% on time from 1,106 flights
- 9 AM: 87.6% on time from 1,088 flights
- 10 AM: 84.0% on time from 1,511 flights
- 11 AM: 80.9% on time from 1,571 flights
- 12 PM: 86.1% on time from 1,312 flights
- 1 PM: 79.7% on time from 949 flights
- 2 PM: 84.2% on time from 1,354 flights
- 3 PM: 79.7% on time from 1,092 flights
- 4 PM: 81.0% on time from 840 flights
- 5 PM: 79.6% on time from 2,907 flights
- 6 PM: 76.9% on time from 843 flights
- 7 PM: 78.2% on time from 1,702 flights
- 8 PM: 76.3% on time from 853 flights
- 9 PM: 67.8% on time from 1,058 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SEA → 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 SEA → LAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
How this route holds up in bad weather
July 2023 – July 2026
Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of SEA to LAX: 1.9 times the normal rate at SEA and 1.3 times at LAX. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: SEA 1.5% against 0.8%, LAX 1.0% against 0.8%. Flights that did leave SEA in bad weather arrived on time 75.4% of the time, against 79.3% in normal hours.
Bad weather and normal hours at the airports
Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026| Departures from | SEA | LAX |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 1.5% | 1.0% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 0.8% | 0.8% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 75.4% | 78.9% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 79.3% | 81.4% |
| Departures in bad weather | 43,416 | 60,639 |
Of the carriers on this route, United Airlines (0.8% cancelled against 1.5% for the other carriers at SEA) cancelled the fewest departures from SEA in bad weather and Alaska Airlines (1.8% cancelled against 1.2% for the other carriers at SEA) the most. 3 more carriers fly this route but has too few bad-weather departures from SEA to compare.
This route’s airlines in bad weather at SEA
All departures from SEA| Airline | Bad-weather departures | Cancelled | Other carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 2,531 | 0.8%below the others | 1.5% |
| Delta Air Lines | 9,020 | 1.1%below the others | 1.6% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 6,711 | 1.9%above the others | 1.5% |
| Alaska Airlines | 20,261 | 1.8%above the others | 1.2% |
These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from SEA and LAX, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from SEA on every route.
Weather source and limits. In full: SEA (airlines), LAX, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 10,491 | 78.3% | 1.03% | -3 min | 4.2% |
| Delta Air Lines | 6,851 | 85.8% | 0.36% | -9 min | 3.6% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 3,052 | 85.4% | 0.43% | -7 min | 5.2% |
| United Airlines | 1,781 | 90.8% | 0.62% | -9 min | 3.6% |
| Frontier Airlines | 474 | 80.7% | 2.53% | -8 min | 5.6% |
| Spirit Airlines | 276 | 86.8% | 1.09% | -14 min | 5.5% |
| JetBlue | 240 | 70.2% | 2.08% | 0 min | 11.9% |
Alaska Airlines flew 45.3% of the 23,165 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.53% of its flights here against 0.36% for Delta Air Lines.
United Airlines arrived on time 20.6 percentage points more often than JetBlue on this route.
Other ways to fly Seattle to Los Angeles
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEA→LAX this route Seattle to Los Angeles | 23,181 | 82.5% | 0.76% | -6 min | 79 |
| SEA→SNA Seattle to Santa Ana | 12,467 | 85.3% | 0.82% | -7 min | 84 |
SEA → SNA is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 85.3% on time, against 82.5% for SEA → LAX.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS1306 Alaska Airlines | 8:00 AM | 939 | 83.7% |
| AS1300 Alaska Airlines | 1:45 PM | 863 | 77.8% |
| DL2861 Delta Air Lines | 5:30 PM | 784 | 77.2% |
| DL2769 Delta Air Lines | 10:15 AM | 784 | 86.8% |
| DL1628 Delta Air Lines | 7:10 AM | 777 | 92.8% |
| DL2830 Delta Air Lines | 2:00 PM | 751 | 87.8% |
| DL2854 Delta Air Lines | 7:59 PM | 641 | 82.4% |
| DL2914 Delta Air Lines | 11:45 AM | 602 | 87.0% |
DL1628 (7:10 AM) arrived on time 92.8% of the time, 15.6 points more often than DL2861 (5:30 PM) at 77.2%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 85.8%
- Feb: 81.3%
- Mar: 82.9%
- Apr: 86.7%
- May: 84.6%
- Jun: 82.0%
- Jul: 76.4%
- Aug: 79.1%
- Sep: 84.2%
- Oct: 84.3%
- Nov: 85.7%
- Dec: 80.0%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 10.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 79.2% from 735 flights
- August 2023: 78.9% from 734 flights
- September 2023: 79.0% from 707 flights
- October 2023: 82.8% from 699 flights
- November 2023: 83.0% from 612 flights
- December 2023: 84.0% from 556 flights
- January 2024: 84.6% from 527 flights
- February 2024: 84.3% from 505 flights
- March 2024: 79.9% from 567 flights
- April 2024: 82.1% from 599 flights
- May 2024: 83.1% from 630 flights
- June 2024: 80.7% from 645 flights
- July 2024: 78.3% from 694 flights
- August 2024: 78.3% from 693 flights
- September 2024: 85.5% from 649 flights
- October 2024: 84.0% from 642 flights
- November 2024: 89.4% from 587 flights
- December 2024: 82.6% from 642 flights
- January 2025: 90.8% from 624 flights
- February 2025: 77.3% from 555 flights
- March 2025: 84.9% from 609 flights
- April 2025: 88.6% from 587 flights
- May 2025: 83.6% from 654 flights
- June 2025: 80.3% from 633 flights
- July 2025: 77.8% from 642 flights
- August 2025: 80.2% from 635 flights
- September 2025: 88.7% from 605 flights
- October 2025: 86.1% from 614 flights
- November 2025: 84.8% from 604 flights
- December 2025: 73.8% from 632 flights
- January 2026: 81.4% from 564 flights
- February 2026: 82.6% from 554 flights
- March 2026: 83.6% from 639 flights
- April 2026: 89.5% from 611 flights
- May 2026: 86.8% from 677 flights
- June 2026: 85.0% from 651 flights
- July 2026: 70.2% from 668 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.7% against 83.5% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 23,181 SEA → 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