The flight time from San Francisco to Los Angeles is 1 hour, 24 minutes. See Data as Tables

Average Timeline

Leaves SFO San Francisco, CA 2 minutes early.
17 minutes taxiing out
56 minutes in the air
10 minutes taxiing in
Arrives LAX Los Angeles, CA 7 minutes early.

Flight Reliability By Airline ?

American
88%
United
86%
Delta
86%
Alaska
83%
JetBlue
79%
Southwest
75%
Cancelled
Delayed*
Normal

Flight Summary

The flight time from San Francisco to Los Angeles is 1 hour, 24 minutes. The time spent in the air is 56 minutes.

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

Reverse Journey

Los Angeles to San Francisco
1 hour, 20 minutes

Flight Time By Airline ?

Southwest
1h 15m
Delta
1h 20m
American
1h 25m
JetBlue
1h 25m
United
1h 26m
Alaska
1h 29m
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flight Time by Time of Day ?

12AM06AM12PM06PM 30m1h
Taxiing Out
Air Time
Taxiing In

Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)

12AM06AM12PM06PM0123

Flights Per Week

225

Distance

337 Miles

Flights By Month ?

JFMAMJJASOND05001,000

Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)

MonTueWedThuFriSatSun0102030

Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)

Alaska
56
United
55
Delta
44
Southwest
31
American
22
JetBlue
14

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is San Francisco from Los Angeles by plane?

The distance from San Francisco to Los Angeles 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 San Francisco to Los Angeles?

The flight time from San Francisco to Los Angeles is 1 hour, 24 minutes. The time spent in the air is 56 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with Southwest being the fastest taking 1 hour, 15 minutes, and Alaska the slowest taking 1 hour, 29 minutes.

What airlines fly from San Francisco to Los Angeles?

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

Does Southwest fly from San Francisco to Los Angeles?

Yes! Southwest does fly from San Francisco (SFO) to Los Angeles (LAX). On average, they have 31 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 San Francisco 2 minutes early
Taxi Out Time 17 minutes
In the Air 56 minutes
Taxiing In 10 minutes
Arrives Los Angeles 7 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 San Francisco to Los Angeles, Delta is 86% reliable, which means that Delta flights are on time 86% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.

Airline Normal Flights Arrival Delayed* Flight Cancelled
American 88% 12% 0%
Delta 86% 12% 2%
United 86% 13% 1%
Alaska 83% 16% 1%
JetBlue 79% 20% 1%
Southwest 75% 24% 1%

Flight Time By Airline Flight Time By Airline Chart

Each airline takes a different amount of time to fly between San Francisco 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)
Southwest 13 55 6 75
Delta 14 55 9 80
American 16 57 11 85
JetBlue 17 55 11 85
United 19 55 10 86
Alaska 18 57 11 89

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
8am 2.6
6pm 2.64
11pm 0
12pm 1.3
9am 1.7
10am 2.46
7am 2.14
7pm 1.69
11am 2.08
6am 2.7
9pm 0.5
5am 0.33
2pm 1.09
10pm 1.32
8pm 1.85
4pm 2.08
3pm 1.63
1pm 2.3
5pm 1.32

Flights By Month Flights By Month Chart

The quantity of flights from San Francisco 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 886
February 845
March 981
April 1005
May 1143
June 1008
July 975
August 996
September 996
October 1012
November 974
December 879

Flights By Day Of Week Flights By Day of Week Chart

The quantity of flights from San Francisco 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 34.35
Tuesday 32.48
Wednesday 32.37
Thursday 34.21
Friday 34.15
Saturday 27.52
Sunday 29.92

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
Alaska 1
United 1
Delta 1
Southwest 1
American 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)
8am 17 56 11 85
6pm 16 56 10 83
11pm 19 50 11 80
12pm 16 57 10 84
9am 18 57 11 88
10am 18 56 10 85
7am 17 56 12 87
7pm 18 56 11 86
11am 19 56 11 87
6am 16 56 10 83
9pm 15 55 9 81
5am 11 53 6 71
2pm 16 56 9 82
10pm 20 54 10 85
8pm 16 55 10 83
4pm 18 56 9 85
3pm 16 56 10 83
1pm 16 56 9 82
5pm 16 56 10 83
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.