Carrier route record
AAPHX→BOS
American Airlines · Phoenix to Boston
- Flights
- 1,314
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 65%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on PHX to BOS lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 1,314 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate American on PHX to BOS from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,291 completed flights
Avg delay
70 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.60%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
77.3%
Every carrier on PHX to BOS, 2,022 flights
These figures cover 1,314 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.0% 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 BOS
American flew 1,314 of the 2,022 flights on PHX to BOS, most of the route. Its 78.5% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 77.3%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 78.5% to JetBlue at 71.4%. 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.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines (this page) | 1,314 | 78.5% | 70 min | 1.60% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 428 | 77.3% | 106 min | 2.34% | B |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 280 | 71.4% | 79 min | 2.14% | 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 14 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–8am—
- 8am–11am364 flights80.8%
- 11am–2pm332 flights74.5%
- 2pm–5pm381 flights74.0%
- 5pm–8pm2 flights—
- 8pm–5am235 flights87.9%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The overnight block holds up unusually well at 87.9% on time across 235 flights. Red-eyes fly into empty airspace and empty gates, and they are the first rotation of the aircraft's day rather than the last. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 381 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on PHX to BOS through the year
April is the best month on the calendar at 86.1% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. July was the busiest month here, with 123 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 82.8% on time and Thursday the weakest at 72.3%. 11 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 49% of the 19,000 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.
- 49%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%National Airspace System
- 23%Carrier
- 0%Extreme weather
49% 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 19,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 49 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 19,258 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.60% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.15%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
8.0% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,300 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 runs 79.9% on time across 1,316 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,314 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
What to do with this
Booking American on PHX to BOS
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 86.1% on time and October 63.8%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of October before you think about anything else. 1,291 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- PHX to BOS, every carrier
- American on BOS to PHX, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on PHX to BOS77.3%
- JetBlue Airways on PHX to BOS71.4%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Boston Logan International (BOS) 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.