Carrier route record
AAIND→LAX
American Airlines · Indianapolis to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 507
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 59%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on IND to LAX lands a B+, 6 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 507 flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, American's IND to LAX record is 6 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 58 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
83.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 502 completed flights
Avg delay
108 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.79%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
84.0%
Every carrier on IND to LAX, 863 flights
These figures cover 507 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 11 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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Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on IND to LAX
American flew 507 of the 863 flights on IND to LAX, most of the route. Its 83.1% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 84.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 86.1% to Southwest at 60.0%. Three of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 333 | 86.1% | 76 min | 0.60% | A+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 507 | 83.1% | 108 min | 0.79% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 18 | 77.8% | 41 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 5 | 60.0% | 26 min | 0.00% | D+ |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 507 flights.
- 5am–8am211 flights86.7%
- 8am–11am2 flights—
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm160 flights80.4%
- 5pm–8pm134 flights80.2%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 70% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The early departures do better, though not dramatically: 86.7% on time for the 5am–8am window against 80.2% for 5pm–8pm. Worth taking if the schedule allows, not worth an extra connection. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 211 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on IND to LAX through the year
December is the weak month at 68.4% on time, against 96.8% in October. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. July was the busiest month here, with 56 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.8% on time and Saturday the weakest at 75.0%, a spread of 12 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on IND to LAX runs when it is late
American on IND to LAX often beats the schedule: 198 of 502 completed flights, 39%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 85 late arrivals split 27 under half an hour, 25 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 33 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early198 flights39.4%
- Within 15 min219 flights43.6%
- 15–29 min late27 flights5.4%
- 30–59 min late25 flights5.0%
- 1–2 hours late15 flights3.0%
- 2+ hours late18 flights3.6%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 502 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
23 of 92 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 25% of them. 16 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on IND to LAX
The latest arrival of the period was on 26 June 2026, 27 hours 5 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The five worst days are spread across June, February, July, May and January, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 26 June 2026 | 27 hours 5 minutes | Carrier |
| 22 February 2026 | 23 hours 18 minutes | Carrier |
| 10 July 2026 | 6 hours 47 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 18 May 2026 | 4 hours 35 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 25 January 2026 | 4 hours 11 minutes | National Airspace System |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 57% of the 9,218 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 57%Carrier
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 13%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 57%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 5,265 of the 9,218 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 9,218 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.79%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
6.6% 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 close to two hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,814 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.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 73.0% on time across 507 flights, 10 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 10 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 507 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 American on IND to LAX
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 507 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 83.1% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 502 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- IND to LAX, every carrier
- American on LAX to IND, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on IND to LAX86.1%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Indianapolis International (IND) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
- The best day of the week to fly, and why it is the second lever
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.