Flight number record
AA 2551
American Airlines · Houston to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Route
- IAH → DFW
- Departs
- 06:00
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s AA 2551, check with American Airlines.
AA 2551 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 13 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about 3.4 hours. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 13 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, AA 2551's record is 13 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 127 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
90.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 350 completed flights
Avg delay
204 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.11%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
7.1%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 13 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 2551 flies
AA 2551 flies IAH to DFW without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 06:00, used on 155 of 365 flights, with 05:00 (143 flights) next.
- Departs 06:00155 flights42.5%
- Departs 05:00143 flights39.2%
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 2551 runs level with that at 90.0%. 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 2551 next to IAH to DFW
Every carrier on IAH to DFW combined arrived on time 76.4% of the time across 5,800 flights, so AA 2551 is 14 points ahead of it. American flew 2,513 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 75.2% on time. Across its whole network American Airlines managed 74.7%, which this flight beats by 15 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA 2551 | 365 | 90.0% | 204 min | 4.11% | A− |
| All American Airlines on IAH–DFW | 2,513 | 75.2% | 120 min | 3.02% | B− |
| All carriers on IAH–DFW | 5,800 | 76.4% | 98 min | 2.34% | B |
| American Airlines, whole network | 988,892 | 74.7% | 85 min | 2.14% | C |
Across the year
AA 2551 quarter by quarter
AA 2551 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2026 at 96.8% on time and its weakest Apr–Jun 2026 at 85.1%, a swing of 12 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 202530 flights—
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights89.0%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights93.8%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights85.1%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights96.8%
Scale runs 75% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, AA 2551 ranged from 84.0% on Saturday to 94.1% on Wednesday. With about 52 flights behind each day, a spread of 10 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.
Arrival by arrival
How late AA 2551 runs when it is late
AA 2551 often beats the schedule: 157 of 350 completed flights, 45%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. When AA 2551 is late it tends to be very late: 25 of its 35 late arrivals were an hour or more behind, and 15 were two hours or more.
- 15+ min early157 flights44.9%
- Within 15 min158 flights45.1%
- 15–29 min late7 flights2.0%
- 30–59 min late3 flights0.9%
- 1–2 hours late10 flights2.9%
- 2+ hours late15 flights4.3%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 350 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 33 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 3 made it up before arrival. Only 5 left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for AA 2551
The latest arrival of the period was on 8 September 2025, 16 hours 19 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. On four of the five worst days the largest share was filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage).
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2025 | 16 hours 19 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 27 December 2025 | 13 hours 18 minutes | Carrier |
| 10 August 2026 | 12 hours 22 minutes | Carrier |
| 24 April 2026 | 9 hours 31 minutes | Carrier |
| 28 January 2026 | 7 hours 15 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why AA 2551 runs late
Carrier accounts for 72% of the 7,132 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 72%Carrier
- 13%Late-arriving aircraft
- 9%Extreme weather
- 6%National Airspace System
The largest share of delay minutes, 72%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 5,109 of the 7,132 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 7,132 delay minutes reported on AA 2551.
Cancellations run at 4.11%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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
7.1% 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 about 3.4 hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
Every one of the 365 flights under AA 2551 in the data flew IAH to DFW. 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 2551
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on AA 2551: 4.11% of its 365 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs about 3.4 hours, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- IAH to DFW, every carrier and departure
- DFW to IAH, the return direction
- United Airlines 1949 on the same route69.9%
- United Airlines 1388 on the same route76.1%
- George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.