Flight profile · American Airlines
AA1179
Chicago (ORD) to Santa Ana (SNA) · scheduled 6:30 PM – 9:26 PM
How AA1179 performs
1,031 operations, July 2023 – August 2026.
Between its first and last recorded date on ORD → SNA, AA1179 averaged about 6 operations a week (1,031 in 1,158 days, cancelled ones included).
AA1179 arrived on time 75.3% of the time, against 79.5% for all ORD → SNA flights, so this departure is 4.2 percentage points worse than the route as a whole. Against American Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 3.2 points worse.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 1,031 operations, July 2023 – August 2026 · If AA1179 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where AA1179 is right now
A live reading, only if you ask for it. It is not part of the reliability record above.
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Against the rest of the route
| Flight or route | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA1179 | 75.3% | 1.55% | -6 min | 7.9% | 1,031 |
| American Airlines on ORD → SNA | 78.5% | 0.96% | -6 min | 6.4% | 3,348 |
| All ORD → SNA flights | 79.5% | 0.55% | -6 min | 5.3% | 6,897 |
AA1179 has cancelled 1.55% of its scheduled departures (16 of 1,031), against 0.55% for all ORD → SNA flights — this specific departure cancels 1.0 percentage points more often than the route as a whole. Different flight numbers on the same route can carry different aircraft, crews and schedules, so this is a fact about AA1179 specifically, not about the route it flies.
7.9% of AA1179’s arrivals were an hour or more late, against 5.3% across ORD → SNA, so the long delays are more common on this number than on the route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026
Why AA1179 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for AA1179 on ORD → SNA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – August 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies AA1179 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, AA1179 pushed back an average of 36 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 8 minutes late.
Matched by tail number to the aircraft’s previous flight into ORD: 873 of 1,016 departures. Unknown, cancelled or diverted inbounds and gaps over 12 hours are left out.
Against the network at the same turn length
| Share of departures | Inbound landed 15+ late | Left 15+ late after a late inbound | Left 15+ late after an on-time inbound |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1179 | 23% | 57% | 17% |
| Network, same turn | 17% | 69% | 9% |
74 scheduled minutes is enough to clean and board when the aircraft is on time, with little to spare when it is not.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 60 to 89 minutes. How often AA1179’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is higher than the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often AA1179 left 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – August 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves ORD late, does that still matter by the time it reaches SNA?
AA1179 pushes back an average of 17.4 minutes late and reaches the gate at SNA an average of 5.3 minutes late. The 12.1 minutes between those two figures are slack the published schedule already carries, so a late pushback is partly, not fully, made up before the gate. It spends 23.3 minutes on the taxiways at ORD, 7.3 minutes shorter than a typical ORD departure in the same hour.
On arrival at SNA, AA1179 spends 6.5 min taxiing from touchdown to the gate — ground time a connecting passenger sits through before they can even leave the aircraft, on top of however late the flight itself ran. That is about what any arrival at SNA spends on the ground before reaching the gate.
Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block; the hourly comparison is 83,175 ORD departures. Taxi-in is landing to gate, set against 141,256 arrivals at SNA. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026
The hour it leaves ORD
AA1179 has one departure time, 6:30 PM, so this is what that hour at ORD is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 83,175 departures from ORD are scheduled in the 6 PM–7 PM hour over the period, against 985,989 across the whole day.
AA1179 is scheduled out of ORD at 6:30 PM, in the 6 PM–7 PM bank. Departures from ORD in that hour arrive on time 66.7% of the time against 74.2% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 7.5 points worse before anything about this particular flight is considered.
Both airport figures cover every destination from ORD, so they describe the slot, not this journey; the route comparison is above. Why the hour matters.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
By day of week
Does AA1179 run worse on particular days?
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 11.0 percentage points.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026 · Days with fewer than 120 operations are not scored.
Other routes AA1179 has flown
Carriers reassign flight numbers. AA1179 also served these 3 other city pairs in the period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHX→RNO Phoenix to Reno | July 4, 2026 | 1 | — |
| RNO→PHX Reno to Phoenix | July 4, 2026 | 1 | — |
| ORD→SFO Chicago to San Francisco | November 5, 2023 – December 18, 2023 | 44 | — |
The figures above describe only ORD → SNA, the route AA1179 flies now.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
51 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 1,031 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – August 2026
Other flights on this route
Same airports, same journey, different odds of arriving on time.
| Flight | Airline | On time | Median arrival | Operations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA2285 | American Airlines | 86.4% | 11 min early | 914 |
| AA1179 this flight | American Airlines | 75.3% | 6 min early | 1,031 |
Among all 2 departures on this route with at least 600 operations, AA1179 has the lowest on-time rate, 11.1 points behind the best. Every departure here has at least 600 operations; the other rows are the most punctual on the route, not all of them.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,031 records of AA1179 operating ORD → SNA, published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after schedule; cancelled and diverted flights are reported separately, not in the on-time rate.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: Most and Least Reliable Flight Numbers · The Delay You Inherit · Making Up Time in the Air
Analysis last recomputed