The Best Times to Fly out of LAX

The worst days to fly may be during the holiday season, but do you know what the worst times of the day to book a flight out of LAX are? If you are planning a trip out of Los Angeles, the last thing you want to encounter is a long wait in the security lines before boarding your flight. For this reason, the airport provides a list of peak travel periods when lines tend to be the longest. You check-in process will generally take longer if you schedule your flight during the following times of day:

• 6:30 am to 9:00 am
• 11:00 am to 2:00 pm
• 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm

According to this information, it looks like the best times of day to fly are very early in the morning, the middle of the afternoon, or on the redeye. However, it is important to take Los Angeles traffic into account before scheduling your flight.

Los Angeles is one of the worst cities for traffic in the entire country. Rush hour is relatively predictable, but it can last for hours at a stretch, especially on the congested 405 and 105 freeways. Even on the weekends, traffic can double or triple your travel time to the airport. However, traffic patterns will still usually dovetail nicely with the ideal travel times recommended by LAX.

If you park at the Hilton LAX, you will need to arrive at the hotel at least half an hour before you need to be at the airport. When combined with the recommended arrival times at the airport, this means you should be at the Hilton two hours before your domestic flight is scheduled to take off, with an extra half hour allotted for international flights.

When you combine all of this information, you get a pretty good idea of the best time to schedule your flight in order to avoid traffic and long lines at the airport.

• The middle of the night, between 11:00 pm and 6:30 am. You will want to schedule your flight later in the night the further you live from the airport to avoid rush hour traffic.
• Between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm, meaning you would need to arrive at the Hilton between noon and 3:00 pm. Midday traffic tends to be lighter, although it gets heavier as you approach the end of the workday.

Midmorning, from 9:00 am to 11:00 am, can be problematic, as you would need to arrive at the parking lot during peak morning rush hour. Fortunately, our airport shuttle can have you to the terminal in no time.