The flight time from New York to Los Angeles is 6 hours, 9 minutes. The time spent in the air is 5 hours, 32 minutes.

Southwest does not fly from New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX). Keep in mind that Southwest may fly to other nearby airports, as they will often fly into smaller airpors instead of larger ones. This is because the costs are often lower to fly into smaller airports, and they pass the savings on to you.

The flight time from New York to Los Angeles is 6 hours, 9 minutes. The time spent in the air is 5 hours, 32 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with Delta being the fastest taking 6 hours, 6 minutes, and Alaska the slowest taking 6 hours, 11 minutes.

The distance from New York to Los Angeles by plane is 2475 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

Tables and Explanations

Data Source

Average Timeline Timeline Chart

Our information is computed from the latest available data from the US Department of Transportation

The average timeline contains the median time a flight spends in 3 stages. The first of these three stages is taxiing out which includes the time from the flight leaving the gate to taking off. The second stage is in the air, which includes the time spent from the flight leaving the ground to touching back down at the end of it's journey. The last stage is taxiing in, which is from when the flight touches down to the flight arriving at it's gate.

The average timeline also estimates on average of when the flight will leave and arrive relative to it's stated departure time.

Leaves New York 3 minutes early Taxi Out Time 22 minutes In the Air 332 minutes Taxiing In 9 minutes Arrives Los Angeles 11 minutes early

Flight Reliability Reliability Chart

The reliability of an airline measures how often the airline's flights on this route are cancelled or delayed more than 20 minutes. For example, from New York to Los Angeles, Alaska is 83% reliable, which means that Alaska flights are on time 83% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled American 86% 13% 1% JetBlue 85% 15% 0% Alaska 83% 15% 2% Delta 83% 17% 0%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between New York and Los Angeles, this is due to different operational factors on the ground, as well as scheduling of planes. Each airline's flight time is split into three stages which are described above in the "Average Timeline" section. There are also miscellaneous operational issues which are included in the below total but are not accounted for in one of the three stages.

Airline Taxiing Out

(minutes) In the Air

(minutes) Taxiing In

(minutes) Total

(minutes) Delta 23 328 10 366 JetBlue 20 333 9 369 American 21 334 9 370 Alaska 26 333 9 371

Flights By Time of Day Flight Time By Day Chart

This one is pretty self explanatory, it represents the number of flights that leave the gate in a given hour of the day. The tricky thing here is that this is normally not a whole number since it is an average over 52 weeks. Partial numbers may indicate that a flight may be seasonal or may take off at different times due to different operational factors.

Time Count 8pm 2.42 6pm 2.06 7pm 1.66 10pm 0.75 6am 0.9 2pm 1.41 7am 3.18 9am 3.46 5am 0.88 10am 0.71 11am 3.31 4pm 2 9pm 2.48 3pm 1.66 12pm 1.24 5pm 2.03 8am 2.53 1pm 2.11

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from New York to Los Angeles that take off in a given month of the year. This number changes because some flights are seasonal, and almost all flights have uneven demand througout the year.

Month Count January 1059 February 991 March 1120 April 1067 May 1094 June 1058 July 1039 August 1046 September 1044 October 1104 November 1048 December 1096

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from New York to Los Angeles that take off on a given day of the week. Some routes only have enough demand to sustain a few trips a week, while others have many flights a day. This number is also an average across the year, and hence may not be a whole number.

Day Count Monday 36.5 Tuesday 36.44 Wednesday 36.27 Thursday 36.27 Friday 36.54 Saturday 27.96 Sunday 35.52

Flight per Airline (per Week) Flights By Airline Chart

How many times an airline flies this route in a week. Different factors play into how often a carrier chooses to fly a given route including it's need to connect disparate routes, and demand.

Airline Flights per Week American 1 JetBlue 1 Delta 1 Alaska 1

Flight Time By Time of Day Flight Time by Time of Day Chart

The total flight time varies by each hour of the day due to factors such as airport traffic. More flights leaving an airport may cause higher taxi in or taxi out times. See the description of the average timeline above for a deeper discussion of each of these times.