Carrier route record
AAPHX→ATL
American Airlines · Phoenix to Atlanta
- Flights
- 614
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 16%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on PHX to ATL 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 about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 614 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Delta Air Lines, flew 2,303 at 87.0% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate American on PHX to ATL from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
75.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 611 completed flights
Avg delay
66 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.49%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
82.7%
Every carrier on PHX to ATL, 3,764 flights
These figures cover 614 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.3% 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 PHX to ATL
American flew 614 of the 3,764 flights on PHX to ATL, about 16% of it. Its 75.5% on time is 7 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 82.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 87.0% to Frontier at 72.2%. 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 87.0% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 77.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 632 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 2,303 | 87.0% | 97 min | 0.91% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 632 | 77.6% | 40 min | 0.16% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 614 | 75.5% | 66 min | 0.49% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 215 | 72.2% | 74 min | 0.93% | C+ |
Delta leads Southwest by 9 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
American flight numbers on PHX to ATL
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 614 flights.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am319 flights77.0%
- 11am–2pm21 flights—
- 2pm–5pm256 flights74.1%
- 5pm–8pm11 flights—
- 8pm–5am7 flights—
Scale runs 65% to 80%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8am–11am window is the strongest at 77.0% on time. The full set of windows spans 3 points.
Across the year
American on PHX to ATL through the year
June is the worst month at 65.0% on time, 23 points below February, the best at 88.1%. 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 61 flights.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Tuesday the weakest at 66.7%. 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 55% of the 9,857 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.
- 55%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 9%National Airspace System
- 1%Security
55% 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 9,857 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 55 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 9,857 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 3,523 of the 9,857 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.49%, 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
8.3% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,587 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 79.2% on time across 614 flights, 4 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 4 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 614 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 PHX to ATL
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 614 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 75.5% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 611 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- PHX to ATL, every carrier
- American on ATL to PHX, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on PHX to ATL87.0%
- Southwest Airlines on PHX to ATL77.6%
- Frontier Airlines on PHX to ATL72.2%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
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.