Flight profile · American Airlines
AA1551
Miami (MIA) to Memphis (MEM) · scheduled 10:28 PM – 11:59 PM
How AA1551 performs
623 operations, November 2023 – July 2026.
AA1551 arrived on time 59.7% of the time, against 61.9% for all MIA → MEM flights, so this departure is 2.2 percentage points worse than the route as a whole. Against American Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 1.2 points worse.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 623 operations, November 2023 – July 2026 · If AA1551 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where AA1551 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA1551 | 59.7% | 0.96% | 6 min | 15.1% | 623 |
| American Airlines on MIA → MEM | 60.9% | 1.57% | 5 min | 14.6% | 1,336 |
| All MIA → MEM flights | 61.9% | 1.50% | 4 min | 14.2% | 1,400 |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – July 2026
Why AA1551 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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for AA1551 on MIA → MEM. 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 AA1551 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, AA1551 pushed back an average of 63 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 13 minutes late.
Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into MIA just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 463 of 617 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1551 | 28% | 70% | 23% |
| Network, same turn | 17% | 68% | 9% |
The schedule leaves a normal turn: enough time to clean and board if the aircraft is on time, little to spare if it is not.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 60 to 89 minutes. How often AA1551’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is higher than the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often AA1551 left 15 or more minutes late is about the same as 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 MIA late, does that still matter by the time it reaches MEM?
On arrival at MEM, AA1551 spends 7.6 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 1.6 minutes longer than a typical MEM arrival (6.1 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 MEM. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 15,882 departures from MIA scheduled in the clock hour AA1551 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at MEM (72,783 flights), not just AA1551’s own. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – July 2026
The hour it leaves MIA
Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. AA1551 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 15,882 departures from MIA are scheduled in the 10 PM–11 PM hour over the period, against 340,469 across the whole day.
AA1551 is scheduled out of MIA at 10:28 PM, in the 10 PM–11 PM bank. Departures from MIA in that hour arrive on time 69.4% of the time against 73.2% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 3.8 points worse before anything about this particular flight is considered.
The two airport figures cover every departure from MIA 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 AA1551 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHX→DFW Phoenix to Dallas–Fort Worth | March 8, 2026 – April 6, 2026 | 30 | — |
| MCO→MIA Orlando to Miami | December 18, 2025 – March 7, 2026 | 43 | — |
| RDU→PHL Raleigh–Durham to Philadelphia | January 7, 2026 – February 11, 2026 | 26 | — |
| IAH→PHL Houston to Philadelphia | January 10, 2026 – February 8, 2026 | 9 | — |
| ORD→JFK Chicago to New York | December 3–17, 2025 | 15 | — |
| AUS→DFW Austin to Dallas–Fort Worth | November 2, 2025 – December 2, 2025 | 27 | — |
| ORD→LAX Chicago to Los Angeles | April 4, 2024 – November 4, 2024 | 214 | 76.1% |
| BDL→ORD Hartford to Chicago | October 10, 2024 – November 3, 2024 | 14 | — |
| PIT→ORD Pittsburgh to Chicago | October 7, 2024 | 1 | — |
| LAX→ORD Los Angeles to Chicago | August 6, 2024 – October 5, 2024 | 59 | — |
| DFW→ORD Dallas–Fort Worth to Chicago | July 1, 2023 – November 4, 2023 | 127 | 75.2% |
Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route AA1551 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.
78 min late
against a median of 6 min late
AA1551 has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 6 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 623 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering November 2023 – July 2026
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 623 records of AA1551 operating MIA → MEM, 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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