Carrier route record
AAIND→LAX
American Airlines · Indianapolis to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 466
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 55%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on IND to LAX lands a B+, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 466 flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, American's IND to LAX record is 5 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 49 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
82.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 462 completed flights
Avg delay
103 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.86%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
82.8%
Every carrier on IND to LAX, 853 flights
These figures cover 466 flights between July 2025 and June 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.
Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on IND to LAX
American flew 466 of the 853 flights on IND to LAX, most of the route. Its 82.5% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 82.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 86.3% to Allegiant at 25.0%. Four 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 | 336 | 86.3% | 74 min | 0.30% | A+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 466 | 82.5% | 103 min | 0.86% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 34 | 76.5% | 72 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 5 | 60.0% | 26 min | 0.00% | D+ |
| Allegiant Airthin sample | 12 | 25.0% | 91 min | 0.00% | F+ |
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 466 flights.
- 5am–8am149 flights85.2%
- 8am–11am2 flights—
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm177 flights81.2%
- 5pm–8pm138 flights80.7%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 70% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The early departures do better, though not dramatically: 85.2% on time for the 5am–8am window against 80.7% for 5pm–8pm. Worth taking if the schedule allows, not worth an extra connection. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 177 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on IND to LAX through the year
July is the worst month at 67.7% on time, 29 points below October, the best at 96.8%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. June was the busiest month here, with 54 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 90.7% on time and Tuesday the weakest at 77.8%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 57% of the 8,346 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.
- 57%Carrier
- 24%Late-arriving aircraft
- 14%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 57%, 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 4,724 of the 8,346 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 8,346 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.86%, below the national 1.81% 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
6.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says 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 74.0% on time across 466 flights, 9 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 9 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 466 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. 466 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 82.5% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 462 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 LAX86.3%
- 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
- How to read this site: grades, sample sizes, and honest caveats
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.