Flight profile · American Airlines
AA1203
Buffalo (BUF) to Charlotte (CLT) · scheduled 10:38 AM – 12:03 PM
How AA1203 performs
711 operations, July 2023 – August 2026.
Between its first and last recorded date on BUF → CLT, AA1203 averaged about 4 operations a week (711 in 1,158 days, cancelled ones included).
AA1203 arrived on time 84.3% of the time, against 76.9% for all BUF → CLT flights, so this departure is 7.4 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against American Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 7.1 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 711 operations, July 2023 – August 2026 · If AA1203 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where AA1203 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA1203 | 84.3% | 0.84% | -5 min | 6.1% | 711 |
| American Airlines on BUF → CLT | 77.2% | 1.52% | -4 min | 8.6% | 3,684 |
| All BUF → CLT flights | 76.9% | 1.64% | -4 min | 8.7% | 3,779 |
AA1203 cancelled 6 of 711 operations (0.84%), below the 1.64% for BUF → CLT.
6.1% of AA1203’s arrivals were an hour or more late, against 8.7% across BUF → CLT, so the long delays are less common on this number than on the route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026
Why AA1203 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 AA1203 on BUF → CLT. 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 AA1203 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
The aircraft flying AA1203 came in 15 or more minutes late on 14% of the departures where its previous flight is known. There are not enough departures in both groups to say how the flight left after a late one and after an on-time one.
Matched by tail number to the aircraft’s previous flight into BUF: 693 of 705 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 |
|---|---|
| AA1203 | 14% |
| Network, same turn | 18% |
51 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 45 to 59 minutes. How often AA1203’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s. There are not enough departures in both groups to compare how it left.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – August 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves BUF late, does that still matter by the time it reaches CLT?
AA1203 pushes back an average of 11.6 minutes late and reaches the gate at CLT an average of 6.7 minutes late. The 4.9 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. Its 14.1 minutes on the taxiways at BUF is about what any departure from the airport in that hour spends.
On arrival at CLT, AA1203 spends 12.4 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 CLT 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 4,218 BUF departures. Taxi-in is landing to gate, set against 633,359 arrivals at CLT. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026
The hour it leaves BUF
AA1203 has one departure time, 10:38 AM, so this is what that hour at BUF is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 4,218 departures from BUF are scheduled in the 10 AM–11 AM hour over the period, against 67,459 across the whole day.
AA1203 is scheduled out of BUF at 10:38 AM, in the 10 AM–11 AM bank. Departures from BUF in that hour arrive on time 86.2% of the time against 79.2% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 6.9 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
Both airport figures cover every destination from BUF, 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.
Other routes AA1203 has flown
Carriers reassign flight numbers. AA1203 also served these 12 other city pairs in the period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| CLT→BUF Charlotte to Buffalo | July 1, 2023 – August 31, 2026 | 705 | 86.7% |
| DFW→JFK Dallas–Fort Worth to New York | May 21, 2026 – August 4, 2026 | 76 | — |
| DFW→LAX Dallas–Fort Worth to Los Angeles | April 7, 2026 – May 20, 2026 | 44 | — |
| LAX→DFW Los Angeles to Dallas–Fort Worth | April 8, 2026 – May 20, 2026 | 37 | — |
| ORD→ABQ Chicago to Albuquerque | October 3, 2025 | 1 | — |
| DCA→MIA Washington to Miami | February 15, 2024 – April 3, 2025 | 47 | — |
| CLT→DFW Charlotte to Dallas–Fort Worth | November 5, 2023 – March 28, 2025 | 171 | 88.6% |
| DCA→SRQ Washington to Sarasota/Bradenton | March 23–30, 2024 | 2 | — |
| SRQ→DCA Sarasota/Bradenton to Washington | March 23–30, 2024 | 2 | — |
| DFW→PHX Dallas–Fort Worth to Phoenix | January 8, 2024 – February 14, 2024 | 38 | — |
| ORD→CLT Chicago to Charlotte | December 20, 2023 – January 7, 2024 | 15 | — |
| BOS→DFW Boston to Dallas–Fort Worth | December 5–19, 2023 | 15 | — |
The figures above describe only BUF → CLT, the route AA1203 flies now.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
28 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 711 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA1204 | American Airlines | 87.6% | 10 min early | 660 |
| AA1203 this flight | American Airlines | 84.3% | 5 min early | 711 |
Among all 2 departures on this route with at least 600 operations, AA1203 has the lowest on-time rate, 3.3 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 711 records of AA1203 operating BUF → CLT, 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