Flight profile · American Airlines
AA1243
Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) to San Diego (SAN) · scheduled 7:02 PM – 8:04 PM
How AA1243 performs
600 operations, November 2023 – August 2026.
Between its first and last recorded date on DFW → SAN, AA1243 averaged about 4 operations a week (600 in 1,031 days, cancelled ones included).
AA1243 arrived on time 56.9% of the time, against 65.7% for all DFW → SAN flights, so this departure is 8.8 percentage points worse than the route as a whole. Against American Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 8.5 points worse.
AA1243’s scheduled departure has moved during the period FlyerIntel has on file: it typically left around 7:45 PM earlier on, and around 7:00 PM more recently — a 45-minute shift, not the few minutes of day-to-day rounding every published schedule carries. Confirm the current departure time before booking around an older listing.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 600 operations, November 2023 – August 2026 · If AA1243 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where AA1243 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA1243 | 56.9% | 2.67% | 9 min | 14.7% | 600 |
| American Airlines on DFW → SAN | 65.4% | 2.14% | 2 min | 11.9% | 10,036 |
| All DFW → SAN flights | 65.7% | 2.10% | 2 min | 12.1% | 11,384 |
AA1243 cancelled 16 of 600 operations (2.67%), above the 2.10% for DFW → SAN.
14.7% of AA1243’s arrivals were an hour or more late, against 12.1% across DFW → SAN, so the long delays are more common on this number than on the route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – August 2026
Why AA1243 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 AA1243 on DFW → SAN. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering November 2023 – August 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies AA1243 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, AA1243 pushed back an average of 46 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 9 minutes late.
Matched by tail number to the aircraft’s previous flight into DFW: 535 of 585 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1243 | 30% | 78% | 22% |
| Network, same turn | 17% | 69% | 9% |
66 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 AA1243’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is higher than the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often AA1243 left 15 or more minutes late is higher than the network’s.
Which Flight Numbers Pay for a Late Aircraft ranks the flight numbers that pass a late aircraft on.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering November 2023 – August 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves DFW late, does that still matter by the time it reaches SAN?
AA1243 pushes back an average of 28.4 minutes late and reaches the gate at SAN an average of 25.2 minutes late. The 3.3 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 19.9 minutes on the taxiways at DFW, 1.1 minutes shorter than a typical DFW departure in the same hour.
On arrival at SAN, AA1243 spends 7.1 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 1.1 minutes longer than a typical SAN arrival (6.0 min).
Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block; the hourly comparison is 74,302 DFW departures. Taxi-in is landing to gate, set against 307,043 arrivals at SAN. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – August 2026
The hour it leaves DFW
AA1243 has one departure time, 7:02 PM, so this is what that hour at DFW is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 74,302 departures from DFW are scheduled in the 7 PM–8 PM hour over the period, against 989,065 across the whole day.
AA1243 is scheduled out of DFW at 7:02 PM, in the 7 PM–8 PM bank. Departures from DFW in that hour arrive on time 64.1% of the time against 73.1% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 9.0 points worse before anything about this particular flight is considered.
Both airport figures cover every destination from DFW, 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 · November 2023 – August 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
Other routes AA1243 has flown
Carriers reassign flight numbers. AA1243 also served these 4 other city pairs in the period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| BOS→LAX Boston to Los Angeles | October 6, 2025 – April 6, 2026 | 182 | 73.9% |
| PHX→DCA Phoenix to Washington | November 5, 2024 – December 3, 2024 | 29 | — |
| AUS→ORD Austin to Chicago | July 1, 2023 – November 4, 2024 | 270 | 88.4% |
| DFW→SLC Dallas–Fort Worth to Salt Lake City | June 5, 2024 – August 5, 2024 | 62 | — |
The figures above describe only DFW → SAN, the route AA1243 flies now.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
81 min late
against a median of 9 min late
AA1243 has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 9 min late, but the worst tenth are 72 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.
Percentiles over 600 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering November 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA2568 | American Airlines | 57.2% | 9 min late | 838 |
| AA1243 this flight | American Airlines | 56.9% | 9 min late | 600 |
Among all 2 departures on this route with at least 600 operations, AA1243 has the lowest on-time rate, 0.3 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 600 records of AA1243 operating DFW → SAN, 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