Flight number record
AA 1718
American Airlines · San Antonio to Washington
- Route
- SAT → DCA
- Departs
- 06:00
- Flights
- 352
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s AA 1718, check with American Airlines.
AA 1718 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 12 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about 2.4 hours. That rests on 352 flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, AA 1718's record is 12 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 122 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
89.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 342 completed flights
Avg delay
144 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.56%
National rate is 1.81%
1 hour+ late
3.8%
National rate is 8.1%
These figures cover 352 flights between July 2025 and June 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.
Schedule
When AA 1718 flies
AA 1718 flies SAT to DCA without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 06:00, used on 60 of 352 flights, with 06:35 (60 flights) and 06:30 (60 flights) next. Carriers retime flights through the season, so the rates here blend slightly different positions in the aircraft's day.
- Departs 06:0060 flights17.0%
- Departs 06:3560 flights17.0%
- Departs 06:3060 flights17.0%
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 1718 runs level with that at 89.8%. 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 1718 next to SAT to DCA
Across its whole network American Airlines managed 74.4%, which this flight beats by 15 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA 1718thin sample | 352 | 89.8% | 144 min | 2.56% | A |
| All American Airlines on SAT–DCAthin sample | 352 | 89.8% | 144 min | 2.56% | A |
| All carriers on SAT–DCAthin sample | 352 | 89.8% | 144 min | 2.56% | A |
| American Airlines, whole network | 986,297 | 74.4% | 85 min | 2.29% | C |
Across the year
AA 1718 quarter by quarter
Quarter by quarter AA 1718 held fairly steady: 92.0% in Jul–Sep 2025, 90.5% in Oct–Dec 2025, 87.8% in Jan–Mar 2026 and 88.6% in Apr–Jun 2026. A spread of 4 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
- Jul–Sep 202592 flights92.0%
- Oct–Dec 202584 flights90.5%
- Jan–Mar 202685 flights87.8%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights88.6%
Scale runs 80% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, AA 1718 did best on Friday at 95.8% on time and worst on Tuesday at 82.4%. Each day rests on about 50 flights, so a gap of 13 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Delay causes
Why AA 1718 runs late
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 78% of the 5,048 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.
- 78%Carrier
- 8%Extreme weather
- 8%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%National Airspace System
The largest share of delay minutes, 78%, 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 3,935 of the 5,048 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 5,048 delay minutes reported on AA 1718.
Cancellations run at 2.56%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 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
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.8% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% 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.
The 1,380 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The same number turns up on two other city pairs in the data, including CMH to DFW (1) and DFW to CMH (1), but none flew often enough under AA 1718 to report a rate for. Carriers move flight numbers between routes, so the figures on this page apply to SAT to DCA only.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 352 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 1718
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on AA 1718: 2.56% of its 352 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs about 2.4 hours, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- San Antonio International (SAT) delay statistics
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) 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.