Flight number record
AA 171
American Airlines · New York to Los Angeles
- Route
- JFK → LAX
- Departs
- 06:00
- Flights
- 363
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s AA 171, check with American Airlines.
AA 171 earns an A. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 11 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 363 flights, with a median arrival 14 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, AA 171's record is 11 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 108 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
88.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 354 completed flights
Avg delay
63 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.20%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
3.1%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 363 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 14 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.
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Schedule
When AA 171 flies
AA 171 is scheduled to leave New York (JFK) at 06:00 local time and reach Los Angeles (LAX) at 09:20. That slot held for 329 of the 363 scheduled departures in the data, so the figures below describe one steady operation rather than a number that moved around the clock.
- Departs 06:00329 flights90.6%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
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 171 runs level with that at 88.1%. Early departures usually start with an aircraft that has not flown yet that day, which is most of why the window does well.
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Against the route
AA 171 next to JFK to LAX
Every carrier on JFK to LAX combined arrived on time 75.4% of the time across 10,285 flights, so AA 171 is 13 points ahead of it. American flew 3,298 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 78.6% on time. Across its whole network American Airlines managed 74.7%, which this flight beats by 13 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA 171thin sample | 363 | 88.1% | 63 min | 2.20% | A |
| All American Airlines on JFK–LAX | 3,298 | 78.6% | 96 min | 2.61% | B |
| All carriers on JFK–LAX | 10,285 | 75.4% | 78 min | 2.78% | B |
| American Airlines, whole network | 988,892 | 74.7% | 85 min | 2.14% | C |
Across the year
AA 171 quarter by quarter
AA 171 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2026 at 93.4% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 79.8%, a swing of 14 points on roughly 73 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 202530 flights90.0%
- Oct–Dec 202591 flights87.8%
- Jan–Mar 202689 flights79.8%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights92.1%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights93.4%
Scale runs 70% to 100%.
By weekday, AA 171 did best on Wednesday at 94.1% on time and worst on Sunday at 80.0%. Each day rests on about 52 flights, so a gap of 14 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late AA 171 runs when it is late
AA 171 often beats the schedule: 166 of 354 completed flights, 47%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 42 late arrivals split 19 under half an hour, 12 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 11 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early166 flights46.9%
- Within 15 min146 flights41.2%
- 15–29 min late19 flights5.4%
- 30–59 min late12 flights3.4%
- 1–2 hours late6 flights1.7%
- 2+ hours late5 flights1.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 354 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
A late pushback is often recovered here: of 24 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 8 still arrived on time. In the other direction, 26 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at LAX.
The worst days
Worst days for AA 171
The latest arrival of the period was on 19 July 2026, 7 hours behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage).
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 19 July 2026 | 7 hours | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 15 November 2025 | 4 hours 35 minutes | Carrier |
| 18 June 2026 | 3 hours 33 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 24 September 2025 | 3 hours 1 minute | Carrier |
| 16 November 2025 | 3 hours 1 minute | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why AA 171 runs late
Carrier accounts for 44% of the 2,655 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Carrier
- 35%National Airspace System
- 21%Late-arriving aircraft
The largest share of delay minutes, 44%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 1,178 of the 2,655 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 2,655 delay minutes reported on AA 171.
Cancellations sit at 2.20% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.28%.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.1% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
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 363 flights under AA 171 in the data flew JFK to LAX. 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. 363 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 171
For a booking, read AA 171 as 88.1% on time with 2.20% cancelled over 363 flights. Those are rates from the past twelve months, not a forecast for any particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- JFK to LAX, every carrier and departure
- LAX to JFK, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 738 on the same route72.7%
- Delta Air Lines 773 on the same route78.6%
- American Airlines 117 on the same route69.1%
- American Airlines 255 on the same route78.3%
- American Airlines 341 on the same route76.4%
- American Airlines 300 on the same route69.8%
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) 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
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.