Carrier performance at one airport
AA→RDU
American Airlines at Raleigh-Durham International
- Departures
- 9,463
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 9
- Rank here
- #3 of 11
American Airlines at Raleigh lands a B, 3 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 an hour and a half on average. That rests on 9,463 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 11,943 at 84.7% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs 2 points 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
80.6%
9,264 completed departures
Avg delay
97 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.89%
At RDU, this carrier only
Rank here
#3
Of 11 carriers clearing the floor at RDU
These figures cover 9,463 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at RDU, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 84.7% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 63.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,695 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 11,943 | 84.7% | 80 min | 1.72% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,220 | 81.3% | 93 min | 1.29% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 9,463 | 80.6% | 97 min | 1.89% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 8,886 | 79.8% | 52 min | 1.29% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 686 | 75.8% | 51 min | 1.02% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 3,064 | 75.5% | 80 min | 4.14% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 7,491 | 74.4% | 76 min | 4.34% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 4,324 | 73.4% | 93 min | 2.52% | C |
| Envoy Air | 1,135 | 71.3% | 77 min | 3.00% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 405 | 64.2% | 75 min | 7.65% | D− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,695 | 63.9% | 95 min | 6.90% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 7.7% 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 | 3,010 | 81.8% | 85 min | 1.50% | B |
| RDU to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,998 | 79.9% | 92 min | 2.35% | B |
| RDU to MIA · Miami | 1,666 | 78.4% | 104 min | 1.56% | B |
| RDU to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,070 | 79.1% | 106 min | 2.24% | B |
| RDU to ORD · Chicago | 518 | 80.6% | 153 min | 3.28% | B− |
| RDU to PHX · Phoenix | 510 | 85.9% | 80 min | 0.98% | A+ |
| RDU to LAX · Los Angeles | 423 | 80.6% | 122 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| RDU to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 180 | 79.8% | 57 min | 3.89% | B− |
| RDU to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 87 | 84.1% | 67 min | 5.75% | B− |
Flight by flight
American Airlines flight numbers from RDU
2 American Airlines flight numbers leaving RDU 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 26 points, against 21 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,964 flights90.4%
- 8am–11am1,367 flights86.9%
- 11am–2pm1,594 flights82.2%
- 2pm–5pm1,249 flights73.6%
- 5pm–8pm1,912 flights67.5%
- 8pm–5am377 flights64.6%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.6% on time, against 90.4% 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 2,964 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 72.0% on time, 14 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 924 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 49%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 11%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. Across 174,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 16 to one. The split is drawn from 174,392 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.89% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.21%.
8.2% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 9,463 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 72.0%, a swing of 14 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 9,264 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 arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.4% of the 9,463 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% 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 84.7% on time across 11,943 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 63.9%, 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 90.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 64.6%, 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 72.0% on time, compared with 85.7% in April. Across the year that is 14 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.