Flight profile · American Airlines
AA2221
Atlanta (ATL) to Los Angeles (LAX) · scheduled 4:55 PM – 7:10 PM
How AA2221 performs
626 operations, August 2023 – August 2026.
Between its first and last recorded date on ATL → LAX, AA2221 averaged about 4 operations a week (626 in 1,113 days, cancelled ones included).
AA2221 arrived on time 76.9% of the time, level with the 77.0% for all ATL → LAX flights: on arrival punctuality it is a typical departure on this route, neither better nor worse.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 626 operations, August 2023 – August 2026 · If AA2221 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where AA2221 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA2221 | 76.9% | 0.32% | -7 min | 6.9% | 626 |
| American Airlines on ATL → LAX | 76.4% | 0.55% | -8 min | 8.8% | 1,268 |
| All ATL → LAX flights | 77.0% | 0.84% | -4 min | 6.8% | 16,690 |
AA2221 cancelled 2 of 626 operations (0.32%), below the 0.84% for ATL → LAX.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · August 2023 – August 2026
Why AA2221 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 AA2221 on ATL → LAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering August 2023 – August 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies AA2221 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
The aircraft flying AA2221 came in 15 or more minutes late on 20% 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 ATL: 590 of 624 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 |
|---|---|
| AA2221 | 20% |
| Network, same turn | 17% |
61 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 AA2221’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is about the same as 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 August 2023 – August 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves ATL late, does that still matter by the time it reaches LAX?
AA2221 pushes back an average of 23.9 minutes late and reaches the gate at LAX an average of 14.3 minutes late. The 9.6 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 19.0 minutes on the taxiways at ATL, 1.8 minutes longer than a typical ATL departure in the same hour.
On arrival at LAX, AA2221 spends 8.1 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 2.7 minutes shorter than a typical LAX arrival (10.8 min).
Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block; the hourly comparison is 62,539 ATL departures. Taxi-in is landing to gate, set against 611,660 arrivals at LAX. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · August 2023 – August 2026
The hour it leaves ATL
AA2221 has one departure time, 4:55 PM, so this is what that hour at ATL is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 62,539 departures from ATL are scheduled in the 4 PM–5 PM hour over the period, against 1,039,468 across the whole day.
AA2221 is scheduled out of ATL at 4:55 PM, in the 4 PM–5 PM bank. Departures from ATL in that hour arrive on time 72.9% of the time against 78.6% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 5.8 points worse before anything about this particular flight is considered.
Both airport figures cover every destination from ATL, 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 · August 2023 – August 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
Other routes AA2221 has flown
Carriers reassign flight numbers. AA2221 also served these 10 other city pairs in the period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| IND→CLT Indianapolis to Charlotte | July 1, 2023 – May 20, 2026 | 419 | 80.0% |
| CLT→IND Charlotte to Indianapolis | July 1, 2023 – May 20, 2026 | 256 | 80.9% |
| CLT→ORF Charlotte to Norfolk | January 8, 2026 – February 9, 2026 | 20 | — |
| ORF→CLT Norfolk to Charlotte | January 8, 2026 – February 9, 2026 | 20 | — |
| DFW→ORD Dallas–Fort Worth to Chicago | November 3, 2025 – December 2, 2025 | 17 | — |
| PHX→BNA Phoenix to Nashville | December 1, 2025 | 1 | — |
| ORD→DFW Chicago to Dallas–Fort Worth | November 2–16, 2025 | 5 | — |
| DCA→DFW Washington to Dallas–Fort Worth | January 13, 2024 – February 10, 2024 | 5 | — |
| CLT→EWR Charlotte to Newark | December 23, 2023 | 1 | — |
| CLT→SRQ Charlotte to Sarasota/Bradenton | October 5, 2023 – November 4, 2023 | 29 | — |
The figures above describe only ATL → LAX, the route AA2221 flies now.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
44 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 626 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering August 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL996 | Delta Air Lines | 87.9% | 9 min early | 897 |
| DL501 | Delta Air Lines | 84.2% | 5 min early | 1,154 |
| DL753 | Delta Air Lines | 83.7% | 7 min early | 1,091 |
| DL895 | Delta Air Lines | 83.6% | 6 min early | 1,053 |
| DL898 | Delta Air Lines | 82.6% | 4 min early | 1,130 |
| AA2221 this flight | American Airlines | 76.9% | 7 min early | 626 |
| DL331 | Delta Air Lines | 71.6% | 3 min early | 793 |
| DL500 | Delta Air Lines | 70.9% | 0 min early | 1,082 |
| DL301 | Delta Air Lines | 67.0% | 3 min late | 1,037 |
Among the 9 departures listed, AA2221 has the 6th highest on-time rate, 11.0 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 626 records of AA2221 operating ATL → LAX, 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