Flight profile · American Airlines
AA1478
Houston (IAH) to Charlotte (CLT) · scheduled 2:06 PM – 5:30 PM
How AA1478 performs
943 operations, July 2023 – August 2026.
Between its first and last recorded date on IAH → CLT, AA1478 averaged about 6 operations a week (943 in 1,158 days, cancelled ones included).
AA1478 arrived on time 74.4% of the time, against 77.6% for all IAH → CLT flights, so this departure is 3.2 percentage points worse than the route as a whole. Against American Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 5.6 points worse.
AA1478’s scheduled departure has moved during the period FlyerIntel has on file: it typically left around 2:00 PM earlier on, and around 3:00 PM more recently — a 60-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 · 943 operations, July 2023 – August 2026 · If AA1478 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where AA1478 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA1478 | 74.4% | 0.74% | -3 min | 10.3% | 943 |
| American Airlines on IAH → CLT | 80.0% | 1.92% | -7 min | 8.8% | 5,212 |
| All IAH → CLT flights | 77.6% | 2.01% | -5 min | 9.3% | 7,698 |
AA1478 has cancelled 0.74% of its scheduled departures (7 of 943), against 2.01% for all IAH → CLT flights — this specific departure cancels 1.3 percentage points less 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 AA1478 specifically, not about the route it flies.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026
Why AA1478 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 AA1478 on IAH → 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 AA1478 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, AA1478 pushed back an average of 64 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 6 minutes late.
Matched by tail number to the aircraft’s previous flight into IAH: 919 of 937 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1478 | 17% | 89% | 13% |
| Network, same turn | 18% | 85% | 10% |
50 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 AA1478’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is about the same as the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often AA1478 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 July 2023 – August 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves IAH late, does that still matter by the time it reaches CLT?
AA1478 pushes back an average of 22.8 minutes late and reaches the gate at CLT an average of 18.4 minutes late. The 4.4 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 17.1 minutes on the taxiways at IAH, 2.7 minutes shorter than a typical IAH departure in the same hour.
On arrival at CLT, AA1478 spends 15.9 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 3.1 minutes longer than a typical CLT arrival (12.8 min).
Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block; the hourly comparison is 31,891 IAH 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 IAH
AA1478 has one departure time, 2:06 PM, so this is what that hour at IAH is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 31,891 departures from IAH are scheduled in the 2 PM–3 PM hour over the period, against 369,255 across the whole day.
AA1478 is scheduled out of IAH at 2:06 PM, in the 2 PM–3 PM bank. Departures from IAH in that hour arrive on time 76.1% of the time against 77.5% across the airport’s whole day, so the hour AA1478 leaves in is an ordinary one for IAH and explains nothing about its record either way.
Both airport figures cover every destination from IAH, 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 AA1478 run worse on particular days?
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 12.4 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 AA1478 has flown
Carriers reassign flight numbers. AA1478 also served these 6 other city pairs in the period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| ORD→LGA Chicago to New York | May 21, 2026 – August 4, 2026 | 76 | — |
| LGA→ORD New York to Chicago | May 21, 2026 – July 1, 2026 | 42 | — |
| PHX→SAN Phoenix to San Diego | April 7, 2026 – May 20, 2026 | 44 | — |
| CLT→IAH Charlotte to Houston | July 1, 2023 – April 6, 2026 | 911 | 82.5% |
| SJU→MIA San Juan to Miami | February 3–10, 2026 | 3 | — |
| CLT→RIC Charlotte to Richmond | December 3, 2025 | 1 | — |
The figures above describe only IAH → CLT, the route AA1478 flies now.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
61 min late
against a median of 3 min early
AA1478 has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 3 min early, but the worst tenth are 64 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 943 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA2011 | American Airlines | 88.0% | 9 min early | 1,106 |
| AA1478 this flight | American Airlines | 74.4% | 3 min early | 943 |
Among all 2 departures on this route with at least 600 operations, AA1478 has the lowest on-time rate, 13.6 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 943 records of AA1478 operating IAH → 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