The flight time from New York, New York to Los Angeles, California is:
5 hours, 23 minutes
In-air flight time: 5 hours, 23 minutes
From gate to gate: 5 hours, 58 minutes
Constant 500 mph: 4 hours, 54 minutes
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Open this map directly on Google Maps. For a quick answer, you can use TheDistanceNow.com to get the distance from New York to Los Angeles.
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Flying time from New York, NY to Los Angeles, CA
The total flight duration from New York, NY to Los Angeles, CA is 5 hours, 23 minutes.
This is the average in-air flight time (wheels up to wheels down on the runway) based on actual flights taken over the past year, including routes like EWR to LAX. It covers the entire time on a typical commercial flight including take-off and landing.
If you're planning a trip, you should also factor in extra time for the plane to pull back from the gate and taxi to the runway, as well as reaching the destination gate after landing. If you include this extra time on the tarmac, the average total elapsed time from gate to gate flying from New York, NY to Los Angeles, CA is 5 hours, 58 minutes.
Finally, pilots might want to estimate the flight time using an average flight speed for a commercial airliner of 500 mph, which is equivalent to 805 km/h or 434 knots. If you don't add any extra time to increase or decrease speed for take-off and landing, then at constant speed your flight time would be 4 hours, 54 minutes.
If you're booking a flight, make sure you check the scheduled departure and arrival times. You should also factor in airport wait times and possible equipment or weather delays. If you're trying to figure out what time you'll arrive at the destination, you may want to see if there's a time difference between New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA.
The calculation of flight time is based on the straight line distance from New York, NY to Los Angeles, CA ("as the crow flies"), which is about 2,451 miles or 3 944 kilometers.
Your trip begins in New York, New York.
It ends in Los Angeles, California.
Your flight direction from New York, NY to Los Angeles, CA is West (-86 degrees from North).
The flight time calculator measures the average flight duration between points. It uses the great circle formula to compute the travel mileage.
There are many ways to get from Los Angeles Airport to the city or the surrounding areas.
The LAX FlyAway buses have regular scheduled round trips between terminals and to Van Nuys (San Fernando Valley), Union Station (Downtown Los Angeles), Westwood (West Los Angeles/UCLA), Santa Monica and Hollywood.
If you are heading to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm and hotels in the Anaheim, Buena Park and Garden Grove area take Grayline, Shuttle One or Mickey’s Space Ship Shuttle. Central Coast Shuttle travels to Central Coast area like Ventura, Santa Barbara, Buellton and Santa Maria.
For those who have friends and family waiting, LAX has a 24-hour LAX Cell Phone Waiting Lot where drivers and passengers can wait for free for up to 2 hours. All you need to do is get to the Lot adjacent to the southwest corner of LAX Economy Parking Lot C. No parking is allowed at the Lot. Find out more at lawa.org.
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Flight time calculator
Travelmath provides an online flight time calculator for all types of travel routes. You can enter airports, cities, states, countries, or zip codes to find the flying time between any two points. The database uses the great circle distance and the average airspeed of a commercial airliner to figure out how long a typical flight would take. Find your travel time to estimate the length of a flight between airports, or ask how long it takes to fly from one city to another.
Average Timeline
Leaves JFK New York, NY 2 minutes early.
5 hours, 24 minutes in the air
Arrives LAX Los Angeles, CA 17 minutes early.
Flight Reliability By Airline ?
| Alaska | 92% |
| American | 91% |
| Delta | 87% |
| United | 87% |
| JetBlue | 82% |
CancelledDelayed*Normal
Flight Summary
The flight time from New York to Los Angeles is 5 hours, 56 minutes. The time spent in the air is 5 hours, 24 minutes.
The flight distance from New York to Los Angeles is 2475 Miles.
Flight Time By Airline ?
| JetBlue | 5h 54m |
| Delta | 5h 56m |
| United | 5h 57m |
| Alaska | 5h 58m |
| American | 5h 58m |
Taxiing OutAir TimeTaxiing In
Flight Time by Time of Day ?
12AM06AM12PM06PM1h2h3h4h5hTaxiing OutAir TimeTaxiing In
Flights By Time of Day ?
(Average)
12AM06AM12PM06PM0123
Flights By Month ?
JFMAMJJASOND0200400600800Flights By Day of Week ?
(Average)
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun05101520Flights By Airline ?
(Per Week)
| Delta | 46 |
| American | 46 |
| JetBlue | 42 |
| United | 10 |
| Alaska | 3 |
Frequently Asked Questions
How far is New York from Los Angeles by plane?
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.
How long is the flight from New York to Los Angeles?
The flight time from New York to Los Angeles is 5 hours, 56 minutes. The time spent in the air is 5 hours, 24 minutes. These numbers are averages. In reality, it varies by airline with JetBlue being the fastest taking 5 hours, 54 minutes, and Alaska the slowest taking 5 hours, 58 minutes.
What airlines fly from New York to Los Angeles?
American, Delta, United, JetBlue, and Alaska are the airlines with direct flights from New York to Los Angeles.
Does Southwest fly from New York to Los Angeles?
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.
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.
| 2 minutes early |
| 19 minutes |
| 324 minutes |
| 9 minutes |
| 17 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, Delta is 87% reliable, which means that Delta flights are on time 87% of the time, and cancelled or delayed the remaining time.
| Alaska | 92% | 7% | 1% |
| American | 91% | 8% | 1% |
| Delta | 87% | 12% | 1% |
| United | 87% | 10% | 3% |
| JetBlue | 82% | 16% | 2% |
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.
| JetBlue | 18 | 324 | 8 | 354 |
| Delta | 18 | 322 | 10 | 356 |
| United | 24 | 323 | 7 | 357 |
| Alaska | 24 | 321 | 8 | 358 |
| American | 20 | 327 | 7 | 358 |
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.
| 8pm | 0.9 |
| 6pm | 1.41 |
| 7pm | 1.93 |
| 10pm | 0.32 |
| 6am | 1.18 |
| 2pm | 0.53 |
| 7am | 1.16 |
| 9am | 1.94 |
| 5am | 0.02 |
| 10am | 1.06 |
| 11am | 1.14 |
| 4pm | 1.24 |
| 9pm | 0.75 |
| 3pm | 1.18 |
| 12pm | 1.38 |
| 5pm | 1.73 |
| 8am | 2.12 |
| 1pm | 0.92 |
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.
| January | 816 |
| February | 252 |
| March | 356 |
| April | 515 |
| May | 583 |
| June | 650 |
| July | 743 |
| August | 771 |
| September | 739 |
| October | 782 |
| November | 794 |
| December | 756 |
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.
| Monday | 23.21 |
| Tuesday | 20.23 |
| Wednesday | 19.56 |
| Thursday | 22.92 |
| Friday | 23.02 |
| Saturday | 17.1 |
| Sunday | 23.13 |
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.
| Delta | 1 |
| American | 1 |
| JetBlue | 1 |
| United | 0 |
| Alaska | 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.
| 8pm | 22 | 324 | 10 | 362 |
| 6pm | 21 | 329 | 7 | 361 |
| 7pm | 21 | 324 | 10 | 361 |
| 10pm | 19 | 322 | 10 | 357 |
| 6am | 19 | 322 | 9 | 355 |
| 2pm | 17 | 321 | 9 | 350 |
| 7am | 17 | 321 | 10 | 351 |
| 9am | 20 | 319 | 8 | 351 |
| 5am | 16 | 329 | 12 | 353 |
| 10am | 17 | 324 | 10 | 355 |
| 11am | 16 | 325 | 6 | 352 |
| 4pm | 20 | 327 | 7 | 355 |
| 9pm | 20 | 328 | 11 | 365 |
| 3pm | 20 | 327 | 9 | 360 |
| 12pm | 16 | 323 | 8 | 351 |
| 5pm | 19 | 325 | 9 | 356 |
| 8am | 22 | 326 | 9 | 360 |
| 1pm | 17 | 323 | 8 | 351 |
* Delayed more than 20 minutes.
All data above is a median or mean as appropriate.