Best airline from San Francisco to Los Angeles

Most punctual on this route

C
United Airlines

73.33% on time across 286 flights · 0.35% cancelled

That is 12.3 points clear of Delta Air Lines, the next best on this route at 61.08%.

Every airline on SFO to LAX, ranked

# Airline Flights On time Cancelled Grade
1 United Airlines 286 73.33% 0.35% C
2 Delta Air Lines 203 61.08% 0% D
3 Alaska Airlines 179 60.34% 0% D
4 SkyWest Airlines 211 59.72% 0% D
5 Southwest Airlines 153 34.64% 0% F

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 SFO to LAX the spread between best and worst is 38.7 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 SFO to LAX record → · Best time of year to fly it →