Carrier performance at one airport
AA→BNA
American Airlines at Nashville International
- Departures
- 9,410
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 9
- Rank here
- #2 of 13
American Airlines at Nashville lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 9,410 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,366 at 83.6% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs 3 points ahead of the 74.8% weighted average across all carriers at BNA. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
77.7%
9,193 completed departures
Avg delay
101 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.08%
At BNA, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 13 carriers clearing the floor at BNA
These figures cover 9,410 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at BNA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 83.6% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 71.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,596 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 9,366 | 83.6% | 79 min | 1.83% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 9,410 | 77.7% | 101 min | 2.08% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,740 | 76.8% | 80 min | 4.25% | B− |
| United Airlines | 7,009 | 76.2% | 85 min | 1.48% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,977 | 75.5% | 101 min | 2.25% | B |
| Allegiant Air | 2,232 | 75.5% | 97 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| Republic Airways | 7,044 | 75.4% | 69 min | 3.63% | B− |
| Envoy Air | 2,385 | 75.1% | 70 min | 2.35% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 902 | 74.3% | 97 min | 2.11% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 62,867 | 72.9% | 50 min | 0.82% | C+ |
| PSA Airlines | 1,428 | 72.4% | 103 min | 5.81% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,162 | 72.0% | 46 min | 0.95% | C+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,596 | 71.2% | 76 min | 5.39% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 5.8% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where American Airlines flies from BNA
American Airlines operates 9 routes out of BNA with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,122 | 77.2% | 94 min | 2.72% | B |
| BNA to CLT · Charlotte | 2,228 | 80.5% | 97 min | 1.53% | B |
| BNA to MIA · Miami | 1,330 | 79.0% | 100 min | 1.13% | B |
| BNA to PHL · Philadelphia | 992 | 78.0% | 116 min | 3.23% | B− |
| BNA to PHX · Phoenix | 594 | 78.9% | 117 min | 1.01% | B |
| BNA to LAX · Los Angeles | 446 | 73.4% | 92 min | 0.45% | C+ |
| BNA to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 291 | 72.9% | 80 min | 4.81% | C− |
| BNA to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 290 | 67.8% | 138 min | 1.03% | C |
| BNA to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 112 | 65.7% | 126 min | 4.46% | C− |
Flight by flight
American Airlines flight numbers from BNA
1 American Airlines flight numbers leaving BNA flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 23 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am3,201 flights87.4%
- 8am–11am1,353 flights86.7%
- 11am–2pm1,309 flights78.1%
- 2pm–5pm1,482 flights65.4%
- 5pm–8pm1,942 flights65.5%
- 8pm–5am123 flights64.7%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.7% on time, against 87.4% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 3,201 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 71.8% on time, 11 points below February, the best at 82.4%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. October was the busiest month here, with 953 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
47% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 207,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 18 to one. The split is drawn from 206,981 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.08% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.22%.
9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 9,410 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: avoid the 8pm–5am departure. It runs 64.7% on time against 87.4% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 23 points is the largest single thing you control here. Delta Air Lines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 9,193 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at BNA
How often is American Airlines at BNA delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 22.3% of the 9,410 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at BNA?
Delta Air Lines leads at 83.6% on time across 9,366 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 71.2%, a gap of 12 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on American Airlines at BNA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 64.7%, 23 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on American Airlines at BNA?
July is the weakest month at 71.8% on time, compared with 82.4% in February. Across the year that is 11 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.