SJC → LAX Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · SJCNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 09:53 UTC

San Jose airport profile →

Destination · LAXNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 09:53 UTC

Los Angeles airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

88/ 100Strong

Better than 97% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 15,614 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

86.7%

13,490 of 15,551

Cancellation rate

0.37%

57 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-10 min

Average -2.3 min

Severe delays

3.5%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

54 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

15,614

5 carriers

SJC → LAX arrives on time 86.7% of the time; the return trip, LAX → SJC, arrives on time 86.5% of the time.

SJC → LAX spends 26.2 minutes on the ground on a 308-mile trip: 16.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SJC and 9.4 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.

90.2% on time in its best month (November) against 81.8% in its worst (June).

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.

Why SJC → LAX flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

SJC → LAX cancelled 57 of 15,614 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 274. The reason filed most often was the airline, 66.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 411 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Airline66.7%

Weather19.3%

Air traffic14.0%

Security0.0%

Of 57 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

The airline1 in 411

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

38 cancellations, 66.7% of the total.

Extreme weather1 in 1,419

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

11 cancellations, 19.3% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 1,952

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

8 cancellations, 14.0% of the total.

Security—

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.

57 coded cancellations were recorded on SJC → LAX; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

21 min late

against a median of 10 min early

Arrived an hour or more late3.5%

Typical delay when late54 min

Cancelled0.37%

Landed somewhere else0.04%

Percentiles over 15,614 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at LAX after arriving from SJC.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, SJC → LAX arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	26%	High risk
45 min	13%	Some risk
60 min	7.5%	Some risk
90 min	3.4%	Low risk
120 min	1.9%	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 0.37% 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 15,551 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 21 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 15,614 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

SJC → LAX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.2% of the time, against 79.4% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 12.8 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (SJC).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 5.1 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 3.4 points.

On-time arrival rate for SJC to LAX by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

65–69
70–74
75–79
80–84
85–89
90–94
95–99

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 after 9 PM (304 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for SJC to LAX. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	92.6% on time192 flights	91.0% on time180 flights	96.4% on time170 flights	93.9% on time199 flights	93.9% on time198 flights	93.4% on time183 flights	95.5% on time157 flights
7 AM–8 AM	90.6% on time225 flights	94.1% on time222 flights	90.9% on time220 flights	91.2% on time216 flights	90.3% on time218 flights	93.5% on time215 flights	92.7% on time235 flights
8 AM–9 AM	95 flights, too few to score	98 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score	109 flights, too few to score
9 AM–10 AM	90.7% on time229 flights	93.2% on time178 flights	90.6% on time171 flights	93.9% on time228 flights	91.4% on time222 flights	92.9% on time156 flights	92.9% on time226 flights
10 AM–11 AM	87.7% on time130 flights	89.4% on time123 flights	90.4% on time125 flights	93.8% on time129 flights	81.0% on time137 flights	78 flights, too few to score	80.2% on time132 flights
11 AM–12 PM	118 flights, too few to score	96.9% on time131 flights	91.1% on time124 flights	118 flights, too few to score	118 flights, too few to score	95.4% on time130 flights	118 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	87 flights, too few to score	52 flights, too few to score	57 flights, too few to score	89 flights, too few to score	89 flights, too few to score	66 flights, too few to score	87 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	85.9% on time128 flights	93.6% on time173 flights	89.4% on time170 flights	88.7% on time124 flights	90.2% on time124 flights	90.0% on time120 flights	89.4% on time126 flights
2 PM–3 PM	81.0% on time142 flights	109 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	81.9% on time145 flights	80.9% on time152 flights	102 flights, too few to score	107 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	80.7% on time150 flights	93.1% on time130 flights	91.8% on time134 flights	86.8% on time144 flights	83.2% on time149 flights	91.0% on time157 flights	76.0% on time168 flights
4 PM–5 PM	119 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score	83.2% on time125 flights	117 flights, too few to score	98 flights, too few to score	71.7% on time121 flights
5 PM–6 PM	79.7% on time202 flights	92.5% on time186 flights	90.3% on time186 flights	84.4% on time201 flights	81.0% on time205 flights	88.4% on time147 flights	74.3% on time206 flights
6 PM–7 PM	83.4% on time169 flights	85.8% on time134 flights	85.0% on time140 flights	80.9% on time162 flights	79.3% on time164 flights	90.0% on time144 flights	79.5% on time161 flights
7 PM–8 PM	80.8% on time120 flights	107 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	117 flights, too few to score	115 flights, too few to score	81 flights, too few to score	65.5% on time144 flights
8 PM–9 PM	76.7% on time232 flights	91.8% on time182 flights	83.8% on time185 flights	72.9% on time230 flights	72.1% on time240 flights	51 flights, too few to score	75.6% on time179 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM92.2%

9 AM–12 PM90.4%

12–3 PM87.5%

3–6 PM84.4%

6–9 PM79.4%

9 PM–5 AM80.6%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why SJC → LAX runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

The airline39.5%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Late-arriving aircraft38.4%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Air traffic control14.4%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather7.5%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.2%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SJC → 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 SJC to LAX: 1.6 times the normal rate at SJC and 1.3 times at LAX. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: SJC 1.0% against 0.6%, LAX 1.0% against 0.8%. Flights that did leave LAX in bad weather arrived on time 78.9% of the time, against 81.4% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from SJC and LAX in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	SJC	LAX
Cancelled in bad weather	1.0%	1.0%
Cancelled in normal hours	0.6%	0.8%
Arrived on time, bad weather	87.4%	78.9%
Arrived on time, normal hours	83.5%	81.4%
Departures in bad weather	4,322	60,639

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from SJC and LAX, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad.

Weather source and limits. In full: SJC, 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.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
SkyWest Airlines	8,627	90.4%	0.13%	-12 min	2.9%
Southwest Airlines	5,588	81.0%	0.27%	-6 min	4.5%
Delta Air Lines	555	92.2%	2.70%	-18 min	2.0%
Spirit Airlines	535	88.0%	1.50%	-12 min	2.8%
Frontier Airlines	301	77.1%	2.66%	-4 min	7.2%

SkyWest Airlines flew 55.3% of the 15,606 flights listed. Delta Air Lines cancelled 2.70% of its flights here against 0.13% for SkyWest Airlines.

Delta Air Lines arrived on time 15.1 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.

Other ways to fly San Francisco to Los Angeles

Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.

Other ways to fly San Francisco to Los Angeles
Route	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Score
SFO→LAX San Francisco to Los Angeles	34,804	77.1%	0.70%	-5 min	67
SJC→LAX this route San Jose to Los Angeles	15,614	86.7%	0.37%	-10 min	88
SFO→SNA San Francisco to Santa Ana	13,715	80.2%	1.13%	-6 min	72

SJC → LAX is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 86.7% on time, against 77.1% for SFO → LAX.

Flying to LAX from the San Francisco area? Compare SJC, SFO, OAK for LAX, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon85.1%

Tue92.1%

Wed90.0%

Thu86.2%

Fri83.4%

Sat89.6%

Sun82.3%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.8 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 8.4 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.8% against 88.4% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.6 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 15,614 SJC → 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

SJC airport LAX airport Return direction LAX → SJC

SJC→LAX

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why SJC → LAX flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why SJC → LAX runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Airlines on this route

Other ways to fly San Francisco to Los Angeles

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology