San Francisco to Los Angeles

What the Data Says About SFO to LAX

The San Francisco to Los Angeles corridor (SFO → LAX) covers roughly 337 miles and is served by 55 carriers, based on Bureau of Transportation Statistics reporting. Across 63,540 flights in the dataset, this route posts a 82.9% on-time rate with an average delay of 67.3 minutes when flights run late. Over the most recent 24 months of BTS data, 22,345 flights were recorded on this pairing — 163 cancelled (0.7%) and 9 diverted (0.0%). Those baseline metrics tell you what to expect before you book.

Having 55 carriers on the route matters: more carriers generally means more daily schedule options, competitive pricing, and redundancy when flights are cancelled. With 63,540 total flights analyzed, the 82.9% on-time figure is statistically meaningful rather than a small-sample fluke. The 67.3-minute average delay applies only to flights that actually ran late, so it is not the average wait across all departures — the majority of flights on this route depart on time under the BTS definition of a delay (15+ minutes past schedule).

Looking at recent months, Jan 2025 posted the best performance on this corridor at 87% on-time, while Mar 2024 came in at 64% on-time — a 23-point gap between best and worst recent month. For travelers evaluating the SFO to LAX route, the combination of a 82.9% on-time rate, 67.3-minute average delay, 0.7% recent cancellation rate, and 55 available carriers is the concrete summary of what BTS data shows about reliability on this pairing.