Flight profile · American Airlines
AA1897
Charlotte (CLT) to Raleigh–Durham (RDU) · scheduled 1:05 PM – 1:58 PM
How AA1897 performs
955 operations, July 2023 – August 2026.
Between its first and last recorded date on CLT → RDU, AA1897 averaged about 6 operations a week (955 in 1,158 days, cancelled ones included).
AA1897 arrived on time 80.8% of the time, against 74.1% for all CLT → RDU flights, so this departure is 6.7 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against American Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 6.7 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 955 operations, July 2023 – August 2026 · If AA1897 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where AA1897 is right now
A live reading, only if you ask for it. It is not part of the reliability record above.
Ask for the position of AA1897 right now, if receivers on the ground are hearing it. Nothing is requested until you press the button.
Against the rest of the route
| Flight or route | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA1897 | 80.8% | 1.26% | -6 min | 5.4% | 955 |
| American Airlines on CLT → RDU | 74.1% | 1.51% | -3 min | 9.3% | 10,616 |
| All CLT → RDU flights | 74.1% | 1.52% | -3 min | 9.2% | 10,649 |
AA1897 cancelled 12 of 955 operations (1.26%), close to the 1.52% for CLT → RDU.
5.4% of AA1897’s arrivals were an hour or more late, against 9.2% across CLT → RDU, so the long delays are less common on this number than on the route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026
Why AA1897 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 AA1897 on CLT → RDU. 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 AA1897 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
The aircraft flying AA1897 came in 15 or more minutes late on 12% of the departures where its previous flight is known. There are not enough departures in both groups to say how the flight left after a late one and after an on-time one.
Matched by tail number to the aircraft’s previous flight into CLT: 880 of 943 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 |
|---|---|
| AA1897 | 12% |
| Network, same turn | 17% |
62 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 AA1897’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s. There are not enough departures in both groups to compare how it left.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – August 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves CLT late, does that still matter by the time it reaches RDU?
AA1897 pushes back an average of 9.9 minutes late and reaches the gate at RDU an average of 5.9 minutes late. The 4.0 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 16.0 minutes on the taxiways at CLT, 3.8 minutes shorter than a typical CLT departure in the same hour.
On arrival at RDU, AA1897 spends 5.5 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 1.4 minutes shorter than a typical RDU arrival (7.0 min).
Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block; the hourly comparison is 44,344 CLT departures. Taxi-in is landing to gate, set against 184,579 arrivals at RDU. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026
The hour it leaves CLT
AA1897 has one departure time, 1:05 PM, so this is what that hour at CLT is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 44,344 departures from CLT are scheduled in the 1 PM–2 PM hour over the period, against 633,368 across the whole day.
AA1897 is scheduled out of CLT at 1:05 PM, in the 1 PM–2 PM bank. Departures from CLT in that hour arrive on time 79.1% of the time against 74.6% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 4.5 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
Both airport figures cover every destination from CLT, 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 AA1897 run worse on particular days?
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 14.7 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 AA1897 has flown
Carriers reassign flight numbers. AA1897 also served these 6 other city pairs in the period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| RDU→CLT Raleigh–Durham to Charlotte | July 1, 2023 – August 31, 2026 | 844 | 78.3% |
| DFW→GSP Dallas–Fort Worth to Greenville/Greer/Spartanburg | May 21, 2026 – August 4, 2026 | 76 | — |
| GSP→DFW Greenville/Greer/Spartanburg to Dallas–Fort Worth | May 21, 2026 – August 4, 2026 | 75 | — |
| BOS→DFW Boston to Dallas–Fort Worth | April 7, 2026 – May 20, 2026 | 44 | — |
| DFW→BOS Dallas–Fort Worth to Boston | April 7, 2026 – May 20, 2026 | 44 | — |
| CLT→LAS Charlotte to Las Vegas | November 5, 2024 – December 2, 2024 | 27 | — |
The figures above describe only CLT → RDU, the route AA1897 flies now.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
36 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 955 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA1906 | American Airlines | 88.2% | 9 min early | 705 |
| AA1895 | American Airlines | 87.7% | 9 min early | 834 |
| AA2688 | American Airlines | 84.9% | 8 min early | 738 |
| AA1897 this flight | American Airlines | 80.8% | 6 min early | 955 |
| AA2704 | American Airlines | 70.5% | 3 min early | 618 |
| AA1894 | American Airlines | 68.0% | 0 min early | 979 |
| AA494 | American Airlines | 64.5% | 4 min late | 875 |
| AA1904 | American Airlines | 63.1% | 4 min late | 986 |
Among all 8 departures on this route with at least 600 operations, AA1897 has the 4th highest on-time rate, 7.4 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 955 records of AA1897 operating CLT → RDU, 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