Flight number record
AA 118
American Airlines · Los Angeles to New York
- Route
- LAX → JFK
- Departs
- 06:00
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s AA 118, check with American Airlines.
AA 118 earns an A−. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 8 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs close to two hours. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 15 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, AA 118's record is 8 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 82 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
85.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 351 completed flights
Avg delay
102 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.29%
National rate is 1.81%
1 hour+ late
6.0%
National rate is 8.1%
These figures cover 365 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 15 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.
Schedule
When AA 118 flies
AA 118 flies LAX to JFK without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 06:00, used on 241 of 365 flights, with 06:05 (62 flights) and 06:15 (37 flights) next. Carriers retime flights through the season, so the rates here blend slightly different positions in the aircraft's day.
- Departs 06:00241 flights66.0%
- Departs 06:0562 flights17.0%
- Departs 06:1537 flights10.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Share of scheduled departures at each local time. Times used on fewer than one flight in ten are not listed.
A 06:00 departure sits in the 5am–8am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 89.3%, and AA 118 runs 4 points worse at 85.8%. Early departures usually start with an aircraft that has not flown yet that day, which is most of why the window does well.
Against the route
AA 118 next to LAX to JFK
Every carrier on LAX to JFK combined arrived on time 79.1% of the time across 10,287 flights, so AA 118 is 7 points ahead of it. American flew 3,242 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 76.7% on time. Across its whole network American Airlines managed 74.4%, which this flight beats by 11 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA 118 | 365 | 85.8% | 102 min | 3.29% | A− |
| All American Airlines on LAX–JFK | 3,242 | 76.7% | 112 min | 2.19% | B |
| All carriers on LAX–JFK | 10,287 | 79.1% | 92 min | 2.04% | B |
| American Airlines, whole network | 986,297 | 74.4% | 85 min | 2.29% | C |
Across the year
AA 118 quarter by quarter
AA 118 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 96.7% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 76.2%, a swing of 21 points on roughly 91 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
- Jul–Sep 202592 flights96.7%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights82.8%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights76.2%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights86.7%
Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, AA 118 ranged from 81.6% on Wednesday to 90.2% on Tuesday. With about 52 flights behind each day, a spread of 9 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.
Delay causes
Why AA 118 runs late
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 69% of the 5,087 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 69%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 10%Late-arriving aircraft
- 0%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 69%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 3,532 of the 5,087 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 5,087 delay minutes reported on AA 118.
Cancellations run at 3.29%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
6.0% 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 last close to two hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,475 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
Every one of the 365 flights under AA 118 in the data flew LAX to JFK. The number was not reused on any other city pair, which makes this a clean record of one route.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 365 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking AA 118
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on AA 118: 3.29% of its 365 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs close to two hours, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- LAX to JFK, every carrier and departure
- JFK to LAX, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 960 on the same route84.4%
- Delta Air Lines 934 on the same route89.4%
- Delta Air Lines 958 on the same route81.5%
- American Airlines 274 on the same route60.8%
- American Airlines 307 on the same route75.4%
- American Airlines 238 on the same route69.3%
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- American Airlines on-time record
- Every American Airlines flight number with a record
- The most and least reliable flight numbers in the US
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
A flight number here means American Airlines’s own number as it reports to the DOT. How the figures are computed is on the methodology page.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.