Flight profile · American Airlines
AA1542
Phoenix (PHX) to Washington (DCA) · scheduled 11:46 PM – 7:00 AM
How AA1542 performs
651 operations, July 2023 – July 2026.
AA1542 arrived on time 88.4% of the time, against 84.9% for all PHX → DCA flights, so this departure is 3.5 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against American Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 3.5 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 651 operations, July 2023 – July 2026 · If AA1542 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where AA1542 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA1542 | 88.4% | 1.08% | -12 min | 3.6% | 651 |
| American Airlines on PHX → DCA | 84.9% | 1.07% | -9 min | 4.0% | 3,362 |
| All PHX → DCA flights | 84.9% | 1.07% | -9 min | 4.0% | 3,362 |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
Why AA1542 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for AA1542 on PHX → DCA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies AA1542 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, AA1542 pushed back an average of 14 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 3 minutes late.
Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into PHX just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 593 of 644 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1542 | 35% | 23% | 6% |
| Network, same turn | 23% | 40% | 9% |
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 90 minutes to 3 hours. How often AA1542’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is higher than the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often AA1542 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 July 2023 – July 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves PHX late, does that still matter by the time it reaches DCA?
AA1542 pushes back an average of 8.0 minutes late and reaches the gate at DCA an average of 1.7 minutes early. The 9.7 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 14.8 minutes on the taxiways at PHX is about what any departure from the airport in that hour spends.
On arrival at DCA, AA1542 spends 5.4 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 2.2 minutes shorter than a typical DCA arrival (7.6 min).
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 DCA. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 13,589 departures from PHX scheduled in the clock hour AA1542 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at DCA (435,126 flights), not just AA1542’s own. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
The hour it leaves PHX
Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. AA1542 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 13,589 departures from PHX are scheduled in the 11 PM–12 AM hour over the period, against 598,518 across the whole day.
AA1542 is scheduled out of PHX at 11:46 PM, in the 11 PM–12 AM bank. Departures from PHX in that hour arrive on time 83.5% of the time against 80.3% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 3.2 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
The two airport figures cover every departure from PHX 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 · July 2023 – July 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
Other routes AA1542 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DFW→TUS Dallas–Fort Worth to Tucson | February 12, 2026 – March 7, 2026 | 24 | — |
| BOS→ORD Boston to Chicago | February 3–11, 2026 | 4 | — |
| ORD→BOS Chicago to Boston | February 3–11, 2026 | 4 | — |
| MSY→CLT New Orleans to Charlotte | January 8, 2026 – February 9, 2026 | 25 | — |
| MIA→LAX Miami to Los Angeles | December 18, 2025 – January 5, 2026 | 19 | — |
| DCA→CLT Washington to Charlotte | December 3–17, 2025 | 15 | — |
| DFW→AUS Dallas–Fort Worth to Austin | November 2, 2025 – December 2, 2025 | 28 | — |
| AUS→DFW Austin to Dallas–Fort Worth | November 2, 2025 – December 2, 2025 | 26 | — |
| PHX→DTW Phoenix to Detroit | November 29, 2025 | 1 | — |
| MIA→MCO Miami to Orlando | October 7, 2025 – November 1, 2025 | 26 | — |
| DFW→SDF Dallas–Fort Worth to Louisville | November 5, 2023 – March 29, 2025 | 228 | 72.6% |
Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route AA1542 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.
22 min late
against a median of 12 min early
Percentiles over 651 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 651 records of AA1542 operating PHX → DCA, 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
Analysis last recomputed