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The flight time from Los Angeles to San Francisco is 1 hour, 23 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves LAX Los Angeles, CA 2 minutes early.
20 minutes taxiing out
55 minutes in the air
6 minutes taxiing in
Arrives SFO San Francisco, CA 1 minute early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

United
78%
American
78%
Delta
75%
Southwest
72%
Alaska
71%
Frontier
59%
JetBlue
47%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from Los Angeles to San Francisco is 1 hour, 23 minutes. The time spent in the air is 55 minutes.

The flight distance from Los Angeles to San Francisco is 337 Miles.

Reverse Journey

San Francisco to Los Angeles
1 hour, 25 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

Southwest
1h 14m
Delta
1h 18m
United
1h 24m
American
1h 25m
Alaska
1h 28m
Frontier
1h 29m
JetBlue
1h 33m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM 30m1h1h 30m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0123

Flights Per Week

225

Distance

337 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND02004006008001,000

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun0102030

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

United
61
Alaska
50
Delta
45
American
30
Southwest
25
Frontier
9
JetBlue
2

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is Los Angeles from San Francisco by plane?

The distance from Los Angeles to San Francisco by plane is 337 Miles. This is the air distance on the most direct route taken by the vast majority of flights.

How long is the flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco?

The flight time from Los Angeles to San Francisco is 1 hour, 23 minutes. The time spent in the air is 55 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with Southwest being the fastest taking 1 hour, 14 minutes, and JetBlue the slowest taking 1 hour, 33 minutes.

What airlines fly from Los Angeles to San Francisco?

Delta, United, Southwest, American, Alaska, JetBlue, and Frontier are the airlines with direct flights from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Does Southwest fly from Los Angeles to San Francisco?

Yes! Southwest does fly from Los Angeles (LAX) to San Francisco (SFO). On average, they have 25 flights per week on this route. This may vary seasonally, please check the chart above for more details.

Tables and Explanations

Data Source

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

Average Timeline Timeline Chart

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 Los Angeles 2 minutes early
Taxi Out Time 20 minutes
In the Air 55 minutes
Taxiing In 6 minutes
Arrives San Francisco 1 minute 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 Los Angeles to San Francisco, Delta is 75% reliable, which means that Delta flights are on time 75% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
American 78% 22% 0%
United 78% 21% 1%
Delta 75% 24% 1%
Southwest 72% 28% 0%
Alaska 71% 29% 0%
Frontier 59% 40% 1%
JetBlue 47% 53% 0%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between Los Angeles and San Francisco, 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)
Southwest 14 54 4 74
Delta 16 54 6 78
United 21 55 5 84
American 20 56 6 85
Alaska 22 57 6 88
Frontier 20 55 11 89
JetBlue 25 57 7 93

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
5pm 1.87
8am 2.86
12pm 1.8
9pm 1.38
5am 0.04
11am 1.58
11pm 0.21
1pm 1.67
2pm 1.32
8pm 1.81
10am 2.59
6am 2.84
9am 1.26
7pm 2.59
10pm 1.58
4pm 2.03
6pm 2.16
7am 1.17
3pm 1.16

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from Los Angeles to San Francisco 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 949
February 913
March 937
April 994
May 996
June 857
July 942
August 1005
September 1016
October 1070
November 1044
December 984

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from Los Angeles to San Francisco 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 33.96
Tuesday 30.56
Wednesday 30.81
Thursday 33.65
Friday 33.98
Saturday 28.5
Sunday 33.67

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
United 1
Alaska 1
Delta 1
American 1
Southwest 0
Frontier 0
JetBlue 0

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.

Time Taxi Out
(minutes)
In the Air
(minutes)
Taxi In
(minutes)
Total
(minutes)
5pm 19 55 6 80
8am 30 56 6 95
12pm 18 55 6 82
9pm 18 54 6 83
5am 14 53 4 72
11am 21 55 5 84
11pm 18 52 4 74
1pm 18 55 5 81
2pm 20 56 5 84
8pm 21 55 6 86
10am 23 56 5 87
6am 18 55 5 80
9am 22 57 8 89
7pm 20 55 5 84
10pm 16 54 6 78
4pm 19 55 5 81
6pm 18 55 6 82
7am 15 54 5 75
3pm 16 54 5 78
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.