Carrier performance at one airport
AA→IND
American Airlines at Indianapolis International
- Departures
- 6,780
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 7
- Rank here
- #4 of 12
American Airlines at Indianapolis lands a B, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 6,780 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 4,424 at 88.7% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs half a point ahead of the 80.6% weighted average across all carriers at IND. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
80.8%
6,622 completed departures
Avg delay
108 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.08%
At IND, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at IND
These figures cover 6,780 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at IND, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 88.7% of the time; Allegiant Air manages 74.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,604 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 4,424 | 88.7% | 75 min | 1.06% | A |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,056 | 83.8% | 93 min | 3.50% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 13,861 | 81.6% | 68 min | 3.37% | B− |
| American Airlines (this page) | 6,780 | 80.8% | 108 min | 2.08% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 13,053 | 79.5% | 53 min | 0.70% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 2,738 | 77.7% | 73 min | 1.02% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,176 | 77.1% | 102 min | 2.76% | B |
| Envoy Air | 646 | 76.8% | 95 min | 2.32% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 567 | 76.2% | 49 min | 1.41% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 670 | 75.2% | 137 min | 9.85% | B− |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,024 | 74.7% | 92 min | 1.17% | C |
| Allegiant Air | 1,604 | 74.7% | 82 min | 0.75% | C+ |
PSA Airlines cancels 9.8% 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 IND
American Airlines operates 7 routes out of IND 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IND to CLT · Charlotte | 1,907 | 82.9% | 119 min | 1.31% | B |
| IND to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,898 | 81.7% | 103 min | 2.53% | B |
| IND to MIA · Miami | 724 | 83.8% | 103 min | 1.52% | B |
| IND to PHX · Phoenix | 615 | 82.4% | 138 min | 0.65% | B+ |
| IND to ORD · Chicago | 564 | 66.9% | 89 min | 6.03% | C− |
| IND to PHL · Philadelphia | 535 | 76.4% | 106 min | 2.62% | B |
| IND to LAX · Los Angeles | 507 | 83.1% | 108 min | 0.79% | B+ |
Flight by flight
American Airlines flight numbers from IND
1 American Airlines flight numbers leaving IND 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 29 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,012 flights88.1%
- 8am–11am810 flights87.2%
- 11am–2pm1,128 flights85.7%
- 2pm–5pm961 flights77.2%
- 5pm–8pm1,556 flights70.6%
- 8pm–5am313 flights59.3%
Scale runs 50% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 59.3% on time, against 88.1% 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 2,012 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 68.8% on time, against 85.4% in October. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. May was the busiest month here, with 712 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 38%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 137,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 137,370 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.08% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.25%.
8.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last close to two hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 6,780 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: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. October runs 85.4% on time and December 68.8%, a swing of 17 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 6,622 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at IND
How often is American Airlines at IND delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.2% of the 6,780 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 IND?
Delta Air Lines leads at 88.7% on time across 4,424 flights. Allegiant Air is at the other end on 74.7%, a gap of 14 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 IND?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.1% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 59.3%, 29 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 December delays on American Airlines at IND?
December is the weakest month at 68.8% on time, compared with 85.4% in October. Across the year that is 17 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.