All of the locals regularly best national averages.įor arrivals, though, LAX led the entire pack with 79.9% of flights landing on time. Lumping big and small together, Palm Springs (handling only a fraction of the traffic that the others do) led everyone with 81.6% on-time departures.

Among the big three, it had the highest percentage of on-time departures in 2022, at 80.8%, according to federal data crunched by yours truly. San Diego averaged 80.4%, while John Wayne lagged at 76.4%. These numbers change from month to month, of course, hitting highs in the summer and on holidays.Īll that practice apparently pays off for LAX. Then there are the smaller airports. Burbank has more than 2,600 flights in each direction Ontario, more than 2,000 Long Beach, more than 1,300. San Diego's one-runway 'international' airport is SoCal's second-busiest, logging more than 7,000 flights in each direction. Orange County's John Wayne wraps up the 'big three' with more than 4,000 flights in each direction. That's almost as much as the other six Southern California airports we examined combined. LAX is the workhorse of SoCal airports, logging more than 15,000 incoming flights and 15,000 departing flights each month.

It seems to be perpetually under construction.īut as spring stirs our wanderlust and we plan summer travel know that, of Southern California's seven biggest airports, Los Angeles International Airport is tops for on-time arrivals and second only to wee Palm Springs International for on-time departures (which isn't really a fair fight).

Ontime airline