Carrier route record
AALAX→IND
American Airlines · Los Angeles to Indianapolis
- 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 LAX to IND sits in the middle of the pack with a C+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 507 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so American on LAX to IND runs 4 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 43 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
73.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 503 completed flights
Avg delay
97 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.59%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
80.2%
Every carrier on LAX to IND, 866 flights
These figures cover 507 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 13.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on LAX to IND
American flew 507 of the 866 flights on LAX to IND, most of the route. Its 73.0% on time is 7 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 80.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 91.8% to Southwest at 50.0%. 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 | 91.8% | 60 min | 0.60% | A+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 18 | 83.3% | 93 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 507 | 73.0% | 97 min | 0.59% | C+ |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 8 | 50.0% | 77 min | 0.00% | F+ |
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 matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 28 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am334 flights76.4%
- 11am–2pm21 flights—
- 2pm–5pm1 flights—
- 5pm–8pm106 flights55.7%
- 8pm–5am45 flights84.1%
Scale runs 45% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 55.7% on time, against 84.1% for the 8pm–5am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 334 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on LAX to IND through the year
July is the worst month at 64.3% on time, 17 points below December, the best at 81.1%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 56 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 84.1% on time and Saturday the weakest at 60.0%, a spread of 24 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on LAX to IND runs when it is late
American on LAX to IND often beats the schedule: 175 of 503 completed flights, 35%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 136 late arrivals split 34 under half an hour, 35 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 67 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early175 flights34.8%
- Within 15 min192 flights38.2%
- 15–29 min late34 flights6.8%
- 30–59 min late35 flights7.0%
- 1–2 hours late32 flights6.4%
- 2+ hours late35 flights7.0%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 503 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
40 of 155 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 26% of them. 21 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on LAX to IND
The latest arrival of the period was on 21 March 2026, 9 hours 28 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 21 March 2026 | 9 hours 28 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 18 September 2025 | 8 hours 20 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 20 September 2025 | 7 hours 15 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 9 February 2026 | 5 hours 56 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 3 June 2026 | 5 hours 54 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 75% of the 13,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 75%Late-arriving aircraft
- 20%Carrier
- 6%National Airspace System
75% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 13,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 75 to one. The split is drawn from 13,126 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.59%, 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
13.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
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 83.1% on time across 507 flights, 10 points above 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 LAX to IND
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 73.0% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 503 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- LAX to IND, every carrier
- American on IND to LAX, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on LAX to IND91.8%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Indianapolis International (IND) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.