Flight number record
AA 2903
American Airlines · Washington to Chicago
- Route
- DCA → ORD
- Departs
- 06:00
- Flights
- 342
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s AA 2903, check with American Airlines.
AA 2903 sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 342 flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Key figures
On time
74.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 323 completed flights
Avg delay
98 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.56%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
12.4%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 342 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Schedule
When AA 2903 flies
AA 2903 flies DCA to ORD without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 06:00, used on 141 of 342 flights, with 22:45 (60 flights) next.
- Departs 06:00141 flights41.2%
- Departs 22:4560 flights17.5%
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 2903 runs 15 points worse at 74.6%. 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 2903 next to DCA to ORD
Every carrier on DCA to ORD combined arrived on time 73.8% of the time across 7,112 flights, so AA 2903 is about level with it. American flew 2,271 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 72.9% on time. Across its whole network American Airlines managed 74.7%, close to this flight's figure.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA 2903thin sample | 342 | 74.6% | 98 min | 5.56% | C− |
| All American Airlines on DCA–ORD | 2,271 | 72.9% | 89 min | 3.61% | C− |
| All carriers on DCA–ORD | 7,112 | 73.8% | 86 min | 3.56% | C− |
| American Airlines, whole network | 988,892 | 74.7% | 85 min | 2.14% | C |
Across the year
AA 2903 quarter by quarter
AA 2903 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jan–Mar 2026 at 86.1% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 56.4%, a swing of 30 points on roughly 68 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 flights73.3%
- Oct–Dec 202574 flights79.7%
- Jan–Mar 202685 flights86.1%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights71.8%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights56.4%
Scale runs 50% to 90%.
By weekday, AA 2903 did best on Tuesday at 84.1% on time and worst on Thursday at 68.9%. Each day rests on about 49 flights, so a gap of 15 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late AA 2903 runs when it is late
AA 2903 often beats the schedule: 125 of 323 completed flights, 39%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 82 late arrivals split 21 under half an hour, 21 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 40 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early125 flights38.7%
- Within 15 min116 flights35.9%
- 15–29 min late21 flights6.5%
- 30–59 min late21 flights6.5%
- 1–2 hours late21 flights6.5%
- 2+ hours late19 flights5.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 323 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
12 of 77 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 16% of them. In the other direction, 17 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 ORD.
The worst days
Worst days for AA 2903
The latest arrival of the period was on 17 July 2026, 12 hours 4 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 17 July 2026 | 12 hours 4 minutes | Carrier |
| 8 December 2025 | 11 hours 33 minutes | Carrier |
| 10 August 2026 | 5 hours 24 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 2 May 2026 | 5 hours 14 minutes | Carrier |
| 22 June 2026 | 4 hours 9 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why AA 2903 runs late
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 8,060 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 8,060 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 35 to one. The split is drawn from 8,060 delay minutes reported on AA 2903.
Cancellations run at 5.56%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in twenty 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
12.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 612 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.
The same number turns up on two other city pairs in the data, including JAX to DCA (19) and LAX to CLT (2), but none flew often enough under AA 2903 to report a rate for. Carriers move flight numbers between routes, so the figures on this page apply to DCA to ORD only.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 342 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 2903
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on AA 2903: 5.56% of its 342 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs an hour and a half, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to ORD, every carrier and departure
- ORD to DCA, the return direction
- United Airlines 1793 on the same route91.0%
- United Airlines 2148 on the same route49.4%
- American Airlines 1200 on the same route74.0%
- United Airlines 2201 on the same route90.8%
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) 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
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.