Carrier performance at one airport
AA→RDU
American Airlines at Raleigh-Durham International
- Departures
- 9,574
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 9
- Rank here
- #4 of 11
American Airlines at Raleigh lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 9,574 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 12,031 at 85.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs about a point ahead of the 78.9% weighted average across all carriers at RDU. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
79.7%
9,353 completed departures
Avg delay
96 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.06%
At RDU, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 11 carriers clearing the floor at RDU
These figures cover 9,574 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at RDU, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 85.1% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 64.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 578 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 12,031 | 85.1% | 80 min | 1.63% | A |
| United Airlines | 6,263 | 81.1% | 87 min | 1.23% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 9,026 | 80.4% | 54 min | 1.38% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 9,574 | 79.7% | 96 min | 2.06% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 2,908 | 76.9% | 78 min | 2.89% | B |
| Republic Airways | 7,682 | 74.3% | 75 min | 4.13% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 4,205 | 73.1% | 93 min | 2.59% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 625 | 72.6% | 46 min | 1.60% | C |
| Envoy Air | 1,090 | 70.9% | 75 min | 3.30% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,528 | 65.4% | 77 min | 5.24% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 578 | 64.6% | 81 min | 6.23% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 6.2% 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 RDU
American Airlines operates 9 routes out of RDU 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RDU to CLT · Charlotte | 3,051 | 82.3% | 86 min | 1.61% | B |
| RDU to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 2,012 | 78.1% | 88 min | 2.93% | B |
| RDU to MIA · Miami | 1,705 | 77.2% | 102 min | 1.64% | B |
| RDU to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,105 | 72.5% | 101 min | 2.35% | C |
| RDU to ORD · Chicago | 553 | 82.2% | 145 min | 3.44% | B− |
| RDU to PHX · Phoenix | 489 | 87.8% | 84 min | 0.82% | A+ |
| RDU to LAX · Los Angeles | 419 | 84.3% | 89 min | 0.95% | B+ |
| RDU to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 205 | 75.4% | 124 min | 2.93% | B |
| RDU to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 34 | 96.9% | 17 min | 5.88% | A− |
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 26 points, against 21 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,916 flights91.0%
- 8am–11am1,446 flights85.5%
- 11am–2pm1,658 flights80.4%
- 2pm–5pm1,280 flights70.8%
- 5pm–8pm1,899 flights66.1%
- 8pm–5am375 flights64.7%
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.7% on time, against 91.0% 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 2,916 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 69.6% on time, 16 points below April, the best at 85.7%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 992 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 49%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
49% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 182,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 182,290 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.06% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.25%.
8.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the an hour and a half kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 9,574 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. April runs 85.7% on time and July 69.6%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 9,353 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at RDU
How often is American Airlines at RDU delayed?
About one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 20.3% of the 9,574 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at RDU?
Delta Air Lines leads at 85.1% on time across 12,031 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 64.6%, a gap of 21 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 RDU?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 64.7%, 26 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 RDU?
July is the weakest month at 69.6% on time, compared with 85.7% in April. Across the year that is 16 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
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Raleigh-Durham International (RDU) all carriers
- RDU to CLT route record82.3%
- RDU to DFW route record78.1%
- RDU to MIA route record77.2%
- RDU to PHL route record72.5%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.