Carrier route record
AALAX→BNA
American Airlines · Los Angeles to Nashville
- Flights
- 414
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 18%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on LAX to BNA sits in the middle of the pack with a B+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land close to two hours behind schedule. That rests on 414 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Delta Air Lines, flew 909 at 85.8% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate American on LAX to BNA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
75.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 409 completed flights
Avg delay
113 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.72%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
81.6%
Every carrier on LAX to BNA, 2,320 flights
These figures cover 414 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.2% 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 LAX to BNA
American flew 414 of the 2,320 flights on LAX to BNA, about 18% of it. Its 75.6% on time is 6 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 81.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Spirit at 88.2% to American at 75.6%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 85.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 79.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 928 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 69 | 88.2% | 68 min | 1.45% | A |
| Delta Air Lines | 909 | 85.8% | 62 min | 1.54% | A |
| Southwest Airlines | 928 | 79.8% | 39 min | 0.75% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 414 | 75.6% | 113 min | 0.72% | B+ |
Delta leads Southwest by 6 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
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 25 points, against 6 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am321 flights74.8%
- 11am–2pm41 flights65.0%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm1 flights—
- 8pm–5am51 flights90.2%
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 65.0% on time against 90.2% for 8pm–5am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 321 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on LAX to BNA through the year
Delays peak in November, when the on-time rate falls to 63.3%. August is the strongest month at 90.0%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 27 points. June was the busiest month here, with 59 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 87.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 68.3%. 19 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 59% of the 11,000 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.
- 59%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 6%National Airspace System
59% 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 11,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 59 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 11,338 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, 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 4,036 of the 11,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.72%, 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
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 12.2% 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.
At 1,798 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 72.0% on time across 413 flights, 4 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 4 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 414 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 LAX to BNA
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 414 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 75.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 409 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- LAX to BNA, every carrier
- American on BNA to LAX, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on LAX to BNA85.8%
- Southwest Airlines on LAX to BNA79.8%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
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.