Best airline from London to Los Angeles

Most punctual on this route

C
Virgin Atlantic

81.03% on time across 1,243 flights · 1.61% cancelled

United Airlines is close enough behind (79.67%) that the two are effectively tied — pick on schedule and price.

Every airline on LHR to LAX, ranked

# Airline Flights On time Cancelled Grade
1 Virgin Atlantic 1,243 81.03% 1.61% C
2 United Airlines 487 79.67% 1.03% C
3 American Airlines 968 77.69% 3.2% C
4 British Airways 1,416 71.28% 0.92% C

Why this is worth checking per route

An airline's overall punctuality is an average across everywhere it flies, and averages hide the thing you are booking. A carrier can be middling nationally and the best option on this particular pair of airports — because of which slots it holds, what time of day it schedules, and which aircraft feeds the flight.

On LHR to LAX the spread between best and worst is 9.8 points. Both carriers fly the same corridor, into the same weather and the same air traffic control — so a gap that size is a fact about the airlines, not the route.

Punctuality is one dimension of a good airline and not the one most people would name first. It is, though, the only one measured the same way for everybody and published by someone with no stake in the answer. Full LHR to LAX record → · Best time of year to fly it →