What are the busiest flight routes in America?
LaGuardia to Chicago O’Hare, with 23,222 flights in the twelve months to July 2026 counting both directions, 64 a day. Los Angeles to San Francisco (22,470) and JFK to Los Angeles (20,565) are next, then the Honolulu to Maui shuttle (20,147), Boston to Washington National (18,182) and Denver to Phoenix (17,917). The busiest routes are also among the least punctual: LaGuardia to O’Hare arrived on time 67.7% of the time and Los Angeles to San Francisco 67.5%, against 77.6% for all flights, and San Diego to San Francisco is the worst high-volume route in the country at 63.7%.
- 23,222flights between LaGuardia and O’Hare in a year, the busiest pair of airports in the country
- 63.7%on-time rate between San Diego and San Francisco, the worst of any route with 2,000 or more flights
- 94.2%on-time rate from Fresno to Salt Lake City, the best; eight of the ten most punctual routes end at Salt Lake City
- 1,611routes flown in 2025 that did not exist in 2005; 945 flown in 2005 are gone
Based on 7,043,858 scheduled domestic flights between 1 August 2025 and 31 July 2026 grouped by origin and destination, 4,080 routes with at least a flight a day, and the routes flown in calendar 2005 and 2025, as reported to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Explore the live data.
What are the busiest routes?
LaGuardia to O’Hare, 23,222 flights in the period with both directions added, then Los Angeles to San Francisco (22,470), JFK to Los Angeles (20,565), Honolulu to Maui (20,147), Boston to Washington National (18,182) and Denver to Phoenix (17,917). As a single direction, Los Angeles to San Francisco is the busiest at 11,235 flights, 936 a month, flown by seven airlines. The Hawaiian inter-island routes are the only ones in the top fifteen flown by three airlines or fewer.
| Pair | Flights | Arrived on time | Airlines | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York LaGuardia – Chicago O’Hare | 23,222 | 67.7% | 6 | 733 mi |
| Los Angeles – San Francisco | 22,470 | 67.5% | 7 | 337 mi |
| New York JFK – Los Angeles | 20,565 | 78.1% | 4 | 2,475 mi |
| Honolulu – Kahului (Maui) | 20,147 | 84.7% | 3 | 101 mi |
| Boston – Washington National | 18,182 | 72.4% | 5 | 399 mi |
| Denver – Phoenix | 17,917 | 76.7% | 6 | 602 mi |
| Atlanta – New York LaGuardia | 16,824 | 74.8% | 6 | 762 mi |
| Las Vegas – Los Angeles | 16,488 | 77.7% | 8 | 236 mi |
| Atlanta – Orlando | 16,410 | 72.9% | 4 | 404 mi |
| Boston – Chicago O’Hare | 15,505 | 70.4% | 6 | 867 mi |
| Denver – Salt Lake City | 15,461 | 78.9% | 5 | 391 mi |
| Honolulu – Lihue (Kauai) | 15,447 | 84.5% | 3 | 102 mi |
| Denver – Los Angeles | 15,416 | 80.5% | 5 | 862 mi |
| Los Angeles – Phoenix | 15,235 | 81.3% | 7 | 370 mi |
| Los Angeles – Seattle | 14,904 | 84.0% | 6 | 954 mi |
Click any city on the report’s map to see every route from it drawn as a line, thick in proportion to the flights, with the top destinations listed beside it; clicking a line opens that route.
Which routes have the worst on-time record?
Short hops into congested airports. Among pairs with at least 2,000 flights in the period, Washington National to White Plains (62.2%), Aspen to O’Hare (62.3%) and San Diego to San Francisco (63.7%, on 13,281 flights) are worst; Washington National appears in six of the twelve worst pairs and O’Hare in three. The most punctual routes are the SkyWest and Delta feeders into Salt Lake City: Fresno (94.2%), Santa Barbara (93.9%), Sun Valley (93.7%), Great Falls (92.9%) and St. George (92.7%).
| Pair | Flights | Arrived on time | 3+ hours late | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington National – White Plains | 2,715 | 62.2% | 4.5% | 234 mi |
| Aspen – Chicago O’Hare | 2,267 | 62.3% | 5.6% | 1,013 mi |
| San Diego – San Francisco | 13,281 | 63.7% | 1.1% | 447 mi |
| Austin – Fort Lauderdale | 2,333 | 63.9% | 1.4% | 1,105 mi |
| Washington National – Norfolk | 2,081 | 64.8% | 3.3% | 142 mi |
| Chicago O’Hare – South Bend | 5,475 | 64.9% | 4.5% | 84 mi |
| Cincinnati – Washington National | 2,036 | 64.9% | 4.6% | 411 mi |
| Washington National – Raleigh/Durham | 4,019 | 64.9% | 2.5% | 227 mi |
| Fresno – Salt Lake City | 2,732 | 94.2% | 501 mi | |
| Santa Barbara – Salt Lake City | 2,120 | 93.9% | 615 mi | |
| Salt Lake City – Sun Valley | 2,156 | 93.7% | 222 mi | |
| Great Falls – Salt Lake City | 2,142 | 92.9% | 463 mi | |
| St. George – Salt Lake City | 3,436 | 92.7% | 272 mi |
The pattern is the airports, not the distance: Salt Lake City is the most punctual large hub in the country and Washington National, O’Hare and San Francisco the least, so a route’s on-time rate is mostly inherited from its ends. The Airport Report ranks the hubs.
Which airline is best on a given route?
It depends on the route, which is what the report is for. On the default route, Los Angeles to San Francisco, SkyWest (flying for Delta and United) was most punctual at 69.1% on time and cancelled 1.2% of flights; United, the biggest operator with 274 flights a month, managed 64.4% and cancelled 0.2%; Delta 62.9%; Southwest 53.9% with an average arrival 24 minutes late; and Alaska (51.2%) and Frontier (49.5%) arrived on time half the time. The same route in the other direction, San Francisco to Los Angeles, runs 72.8% on time against 62.2% northbound.
| Airline | Flights a month | Arrived on time | Avg arrival delay | Cancelled | Padding |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest (for Delta and United) | 214 | 69.1% | 12.1 min | 1.2% | −0.5 min |
| United | 274 | 64.4% | 14.5 min | 0.2% | −2.7 min |
| Delta | 198 | 62.9% | 14.2 min | 1.6% | −2.0 min |
| American | 26 | 61.6% | 23.2 min | 0.0% | −1.0 min |
| Southwest | 119 | 53.9% | 24.1 min | 0.4% | 3.0 min |
| Alaska | 86 | 51.2% | 23.8 min | 0.5% | −4.7 min |
| Frontier | 33 | 49.5% | 28.7 min | 2.3% | −1.7 min |
Pick any two of the 100 busiest airports in the report and the Who flies it table ranks the airlines on that route with share, on-time rate, delays, cancellations and padding; the Best time to fly it tab then shows the route’s best departure hour and weekday.
Does competition make routes more punctual?
No; if anything the reverse. Routes flown by a single airline arrived on time 79.7% of the time in the period and routes with two airlines 79.6%, then 78.0% with three, 76.1% with four and 75.1% with five or more. That is not competition making airlines careless: the routes with five or more airlines are the trunk routes between the biggest hubs, and those hubs are where the delays live. Competition decides the fare; the airports decide the delay.
| Airlines on the route | Routes | Flights | Arrived on time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,329 | 1,251,969 | 79.7% |
| 2 | 1,048 | 1,288,212 | 79.6% |
| 3 | 854 | 1,505,512 | 78.0% |
| 4 | 489 | 1,268,058 | 76.1% |
| 5 or more | 360 | 1,339,651 | 75.1% |
Nearly 40% of the flights in the period were on routes flown by one or two airlines, mostly the hub-and-spoke routes of the big four and the point-to-point network of Southwest.
Which routes disappeared and which are new?
Of the 3,768 routes with at least 300 flights in 2005, 945 had no flights in 2025, and 1,611 of 2025’s 4,434 routes did not exist in 2005. The biggest to vanish were Dallas Love Field to Houston Intercontinental (4,147 flights in 2005), Philadelphia to Manchester NH, Atlanta to Newport News and Atlanta to Akron, and the Cincinnati hub’s spokes to Detroit and Louisville. The biggest new routes are all from Dallas Love Field, to Atlanta (3,502 flights), Denver, Phoenix and Las Vegas, which Southwest could not fly until the Wright Amendment expired in 2014, then Boston to Nashville and Denver to Aspen.
| Route | Flights | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Dallas Love Field → Houston Intercontinental | 4,147 in 2005 | gone |
| Philadelphia → Manchester NH | 3,952 in 2005 | gone |
| Atlanta → Newport News | 3,796 in 2005 | gone |
| Atlanta → Akron-Canton | 3,760 in 2005 | gone |
| Cincinnati → Detroit | 3,477 in 2005 | gone |
| Cincinnati → Louisville | 3,205 in 2005 | gone |
| Dallas Love Field → Atlanta | 3,502 in 2025 | new |
| Dallas Love Field → Denver | 3,050 in 2025 | new |
| Dallas Love Field → Phoenix | 2,984 in 2025 | new |
| Dallas Love Field → Las Vegas | 2,938 in 2025 | new |
| Boston → Nashville | 2,915 in 2025 | new |
| Denver → Aspen | 2,741 in 2025 | new |
The vanished routes are the regional hubs the Airport Report shows emptying: Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Memphis lost their spokes. The report’s History tab draws any route’s flights, on-time rate and airlines by year back to 1987, which is where a route’s birth, hand-over or death is visible.
What are the longest and shortest flights?
Atlanta to Honolulu is the longest regularly flown domestic route at 4,502 miles, scheduled at 9 hours 54 minutes westbound and flown in 9 hours 16 minutes of air time, with Detroit to Honolulu (4,475 miles), Atlanta to Maui (4,431), O’Hare to Honolulu (4,243) and Minneapolis to Honolulu (3,972) behind it. The shortest with a flight a day are St. Thomas to San Juan (68 miles, 23 minutes in the air), Charlotte to Greenville-Spartanburg (75 miles), Kona to Kahului (84) and Greensboro to Charlotte (84); 35 routes under 100 miles carried 55,503 flights in the period.
| Route | Distance | Scheduled block | Air time | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta → Honolulu | 4,502 mi | 9 h 54 min | 9 h 16 min | 383 |
| Detroit → Honolulu | 4,475 mi | 9 h 48 min | 9 h 15 min | 289 |
| Atlanta → Kahului (Maui) | 4,431 mi | 10 h 02 min | 9 h 19 min | 128 |
| Chicago O’Hare → Honolulu | 4,243 mi | 9 h 12 min | 8 h 26 min | 540 |
| Minneapolis → Honolulu | 3,972 mi | 8 h 44 min | 8 h 12 min | 365 |
| St. Thomas → San Juan | 68 mi | 44 min | 23 min | 548 |
| Charlotte → Greenville-Spartanburg | 75 mi | 56 min | 21 min | 1,504 |
| Kona → Kahului (Maui) | 84 mi | 39 min | 20 min | 1,460 |
| Greensboro → Charlotte | 84 mi | 63 min | 27 min | 1,191 |
| Sacramento → San Francisco | 86 mi | 66 min | 31 min | 1,356 |
Westbound Hawaii flights are scheduled about an hour longer than the eastbound return because of the jet stream; Honolulu to Minneapolis is timetabled at 7 hours 49 minutes against 8 hours 44 going out. The short hops spend as long taxiing as flying.
How was this measured?
Flights come from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance tables, which cover the domestic flights of airlines above the DOT reporting threshold. A route is one direction between two airports; where this page adds both directions it says so. Distance is the great-circle distance BTS records for the route. On time is arrival less than 15 minutes after schedule among completed arrivals.
The period is the report’s default, 1 August 2025 to 31 July 2026. Rankings of worst and best routes use pairs with at least 2,000 flights so that a route flown twice a day cannot top the table on a handful of bad days; the competition table uses routes with at least 365 flights. The 2005 and 2025 comparison uses calendar years and a floor of 300 flights.
The data lives in a Power BI semantic model on Microsoft Fabric. Every number on this page was produced by an AI assistant running the report’s own queries against that model, and the same model powers the live public report.
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