Flight profile · American Airlines
AA1204
Buffalo (BUF) to Charlotte (CLT) · scheduled 6:00 AM – 8:04 AM
How AA1204 performs
629 operations, November 2023 – July 2026.
AA1204 arrived on time 87.5% of the time, against 77.0% for all BUF → CLT flights, so this departure is 10.5 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against American Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 10.3 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 629 operations, November 2023 – July 2026 · If AA1204 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
What stands out
How AA1204 compares to other flight numbers, not just to itself.
This flight runs unusually far ahead of the carrier's own average on this route, better than 92% of 11,589 comparable flight numbers.
87.5% on time for this specific departure, against 77.2% for the same carrier's other flights on this route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – July 2026 · The one thing about this specific departure that ranks most extreme against every other published flight number, out of everything FlyerIntel checks — shown only when something clears a real statistical bar, not for every flight.
Where AA1204 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA1204 | 87.5% | 1.91% | -10 min | 4.4% | 629 |
| American Airlines on BUF → CLT | 77.2% | 1.57% | -4 min | 8.6% | 3,563 |
| All BUF → CLT flights | 77.0% | 1.69% | -4 min | 8.6% | 3,658 |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – July 2026
Why AA1204 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 AA1204 on BUF → CLT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering November 2023 – July 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies AA1204 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, AA1204 pushed back an average of 18 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 10 minutes late.
Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into BUF just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 605 of 618 departures in all. A departure is left out when that flight is unknown, was cancelled or diverted, or the aircraft had sat for more than 12 hours. A flight the airline cancelled never left and is not in the count, and one flown by a substitute aircraft is matched to the aircraft that flew it, not to the one first planned.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1204 | 32% | 14% | 9% |
| Network, same turn | 33% | 24% | 11% |
The schedule leaves a long gap on the ground, which gives a late aircraft room to catch up before this flight pushes back.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 3 to 6 hours. How often AA1204’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is about the same as the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often AA1204 left 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s.
More: Which Flight Numbers Pay for a Late Aircraft lists the flight numbers that pass a late aircraft on.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering November 2023 – July 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves BUF late, does that still matter by the time it reaches CLT?
AA1204 pushes back an average of 13.4 minutes late and reaches the gate at CLT an average of 7.2 minutes late. The 6.2 minutes between those two figures are slack the published schedule already carries, which is why a late pushback on this flight does not reliably become a late arrival. Its 16.4 minutes on the taxiways at BUF is about what any departure from the airport in that hour spends.
On arrival at CLT, AA1204 spends 12.0 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.
Departure delay is averaged over every pushback and arrival delay over every completed arrival, so the two counts differ by the flights that never reached CLT. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 10,894 departures from BUF scheduled in the clock hour AA1204 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at CLT (618,237 flights), not just AA1204’s own. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – July 2026
The hour it leaves BUF
Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. AA1204 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 10,894 departures from BUF are scheduled in the 6 AM–7 AM hour over the period, against 65,592 across the whole day.
AA1204 is scheduled out of BUF at 6:00 AM, in the 6 AM–7 AM bank. Departures from BUF in that hour arrive on time 87.6% of the time against 79.4% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 8.2 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
The two airport figures cover every departure from BUF to every destination, so they describe the slot rather than this journey — the like-for-like comparison against the route is above. Hours are scheduled local, and a number whose schedule moved between banks inside the period has no single hour and is not described here at all. Why the hour matters.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – July 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
Other routes AA1204 has flown
A flight number is a slot in a schedule, and carriers reassign it. These are the other city pairs this number served in the analysis period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| IND→MIA Indianapolis to Miami | March 8, 2026 – April 6, 2026 | 30 | — |
| MIA→ORD Miami to Chicago | November 2, 2025 – March 7, 2026 | 55 | — |
| ORD→LAX Chicago to Los Angeles | January 6, 2026 – February 11, 2026 | 37 | — |
| DEN→CLT Denver to Charlotte | December 18, 2025 – January 5, 2026 | 16 | — |
| TPA→MIA Tampa to Miami | December 3–17, 2025 | 15 | — |
| ORD→PIT Chicago to Pittsburgh | October 7, 2024 – November 4, 2024 | 29 | — |
| DFW→LAX Dallas–Fort Worth to Los Angeles | September 14, 2024 | 1 | — |
Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route AA1204 currently operates. Blending them would produce an average of two different flights.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
20 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 629 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering November 2023 – July 2026
Other flights on this route
Same airports, same journey, different odds of arriving on time.
| Flight | Airline | On time | Median arrival | Operations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA1204 this flight | American Airlines | 87.5% | 10 min early | 629 |
| AA1203 | American Airlines | 84.4% | 4 min early | 684 |
Every departure listed carries at least 600 operations, so the comparison is between figures that mean something. AA1204 is placed in the same ordering rather than left out of it; the rows around it are the most punctual departures on the route, not all of them, so this is a comparison and not a rank. Schedules change; confirm the departure still operates before booking around this.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 629 records of AA1204 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 excluded from the on-time rate and reported separately. Flight numbers are resolved as carrier plus number plus route, because the same number serves different routes over time.
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
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