Carrier performance at one airport
AA→SEA
American Airlines at Seattle-Tacoma International
- Departures
- 6,768
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 6
- Rank here
- #5 of 10
American Airlines at Seattle lands a B, 2 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 6,768 flights, of which Envoy Air flew 760 at 85.3% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs half a point ahead of the 79.6% weighted average across all carriers at SEA. 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%
6,595 completed departures
Avg delay
97 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.73%
At SEA, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at SEA
These figures cover 6,768 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 10 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Against the competition
Every carrier at SEA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Envoy Air arrives on time 85.3% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 53.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 413 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Air | 760 | 85.3% | 74 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 28,580 | 84.9% | 60 min | 0.75% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 32,382 | 80.7% | 64 min | 1.11% | B |
| United Airlines | 8,683 | 79.9% | 74 min | 0.75% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 6,768 | 79.7% | 97 min | 1.73% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 76,970 | 78.5% | 47 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,397 | 75.8% | 89 min | 2.22% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 8,194 | 68.2% | 50 min | 0.44% | C+ |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 612 | 65.8% | 93 min | 1.47% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 413 | 53.6% | 101 min | 4.60% | F− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 4.6% 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 SEA
American Airlines operates 6 routes out of SEA 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 2,736 | 76.6% | 94 min | 2.23% | B |
| SEA to ORD · Chicago | 1,353 | 75.6% | 102 min | 1.55% | B |
| SEA to CLT · Charlotte | 1,302 | 87.3% | 116 min | 1.23% | A |
| SEA to PHL · Philadelphia | 660 | 84.6% | 104 min | 2.12% | B |
| SEA to MIA · Miami | 475 | 78.4% | 68 min | 0.84% | B+ |
| SEA to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 221 | 83.2% | 76 min | 0.45% | B+ |
Flight by flight
American Airlines flight numbers from SEA
4 American Airlines flight numbers leaving SEA 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 32 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,518 flights91.1%
- 8am–11am787 flights77.6%
- 11am–2pm1,272 flights75.6%
- 2pm–5pm1,083 flights69.6%
- 5pm–8pm276 flights67.8%
- 8pm–5am1,832 flights81.6%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.1% of the time, against 67.8% for the evening window. That is 23 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 1,832 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 73.3% on time, 15 points below February, the best at 88.4%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 721 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 45%Carrier
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 130,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 16 to one. The split is drawn from 129,845 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.73% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.83%.
7.3% 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 6,768 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. February runs 88.4% on time and June 73.3%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 6,595 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at SEA
How often is American Airlines at SEA 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 20.3% of the 6,768 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 SEA?
Envoy Air leads at 85.3% on time across 760 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 53.6%, a gap of 32 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 SEA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 67.8%, 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 June delays on American Airlines at SEA?
June is the weakest month at 73.3% on time, compared with 88.4% in February. Across the year that is 15 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
- Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) all carriers
- SEA to DFW route record76.6%
- SEA to ORD route record75.6%
- SEA to CLT route record87.3%
- SEA to PHL route record84.6%
- Seattle and Portland airports: why the evening flight holds up
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.