Carrier route record

AAIND→PHL

American Airlines · Indianapolis to Philadelphia

Flights: 612
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 40%
Carriers: 3

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.

American on IND to PHL sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 7 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land close to two hours behind schedule. That rests on 612 flights, with a median arrival 3 minutes early.

The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so American on IND to PHL runs 7 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 67 extra late arrivals.

On time

70.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 598 completed flights

Avg delay

103 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

2.29%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

79.7%

Every carrier on IND to PHL, 1,549 flights

These figures cover 612 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.

Carrier by carrier

American against every carrier on IND to PHL

American flew 612 of the 1,549 flights on IND to PHL, about 40% of it. Its 70.9% on time is 9 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 79.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 89.6% to American at 70.9%. One 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.

On-time performance by carrier on IND to PHL
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Republic Airways	602	89.6%	58 min	1.83%	A
PSA Airlinesthin sample	335	77.6%	101 min	6.57%	B−
American Airlines (this page)	612	70.9%	103 min	2.29%	C

Departure window

When American runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 27 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am77 flights86.3%
8am–11am23 flights—
11am–2pm163 flights80.2%
2pm–5pm191 flights59.3%
5pm–8pm158 flights65.6%
8pm–5am—

Scale runs 50% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 86.3% of the time, against 59.3% for the afternoon window. That is 27 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 191 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

American on IND to PHL through the year

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.June best, July worst

July is the worst month at 57.3% on time, 25 points below June, the best at 81.8%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 111 flights.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 76.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 63.3%. 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. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 18,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
44%
Carrier
38%
National Airspace System
15%
Extreme weather
3%

44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 18,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 17,877 reported delay minutes.

The largest share of delay minutes, 38%, 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 6,786 of the 18,000 delay minutes reported here.

Cancellations sit at 2.29% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 10.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.

The 588 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.

The return leg runs 71.0% on time across 610 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 612 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 PHL

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 612 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 70.9% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 598 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

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.

Key figures