Flight number record
AA 306
American Airlines · New York to Los Angeles
- Route
- JFK → LAX
- Departs
- 16:30
- Flights
- 356
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s AA 306, check with American Airlines.
AA 306 lands a B−, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 356 flights, with a median arrival 12 minutes early.
Key figures
On time
79.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 344 completed flights
Avg delay
75 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.09%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
7.0%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 356 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 12 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 306 flies
AA 306 flies JFK to LAX without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 16:30, used on 230 of 356 flights, with 17:00 (62 flights) and 16:29 (62 flights) next.
- Departs 16:30230 flights64.6%
- Departs 17:0062 flights17.4%
- Departs 16:2962 flights17.4%
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 16:30 departure sits in the 2pm–5pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 71.9%, and AA 306 runs 8 points better at 79.7%. Midday slots inherit some of the morning's delays without yet carrying the full weight of the evening's.
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Against the route
AA 306 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 306 is 4 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 5 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA 306thin sample | 356 | 79.7% | 75 min | 3.09% | B− |
| 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 306 quarter by quarter
AA 306 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 87.8% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 72.4%, a swing of 15 points on roughly 89 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 202525 flights—
- Oct–Dec 202590 flights76.1%
- Jan–Mar 202688 flights80.7%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights87.8%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights72.4%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, AA 306 did best on Monday at 87.8% on time and worst on Friday at 72.5%. Each day rests on about 51 flights, so a gap of 15 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late AA 306 runs when it is late
AA 306 often beats the schedule: 157 of 344 completed flights, 46%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 70 late arrivals split 22 under half an hour, 24 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 24 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early157 flights45.6%
- Within 15 min117 flights34.0%
- 15–29 min late22 flights6.4%
- 30–59 min late24 flights7.0%
- 1–2 hours late14 flights4.1%
- 2+ hours late10 flights2.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 344 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
16 of 57 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 28% of them. In the other direction, 29 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 306
The latest arrival of the period was on 28 November 2025, 13 hours 40 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as a late-arriving aircraft.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 28 November 2025 | 13 hours 40 minutes | Carrier |
| 26 January 2026 | 4 hours 13 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 28 September 2025 | 3 hours 44 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 10 July 2026 | 3 hours 42 minutes | Carrier |
| 15 November 2025 | 3 hours 37 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why AA 306 runs late
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 5,223 reported delay minutes.
- 37%Carrier
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 37%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 1,917 of the 5,223 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 5,223 delay minutes reported on AA 306.
Cancellations run at 3.09%, against 1.89% 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
7.0% 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 a little over an hour, 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 356 flights under AA 306 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. 356 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 306
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on AA 306: 3.09% of its 356 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs a little over an hour, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
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%
- American Airlines 171 on the same route88.1%
- 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%
- 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
- 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.