Flight profile · American Airlines
AA2518
Miami (MIA) to Indianapolis (IND) · scheduled 8:59 PM – 11:59 PM
How AA2518 performs
630 operations, November 2023 – August 2026.
Between its first and last recorded date on MIA → IND, AA2518 averaged about 4 operations a week (630 in 1,031 days, cancelled ones included).
AA2518 arrived on time 64.7% of the time, against 69.1% for all MIA → IND flights, so this departure is 4.4 percentage points worse than the route as a whole. Against American Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 1.8 points worse.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 630 operations, November 2023 – August 2026 · If AA2518 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where AA2518 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA2518 | 64.7% | 1.27% | 3 min | 14.0% | 630 |
| American Airlines on MIA → IND | 66.5% | 1.56% | -1 min | 13.0% | 1,992 |
| All MIA → IND flights | 69.1% | 1.32% | -2 min | 11.4% | 2,735 |
AA2518 cancelled 8 of 630 operations (1.27%), close to the 1.32% for MIA → IND.
14.0% of AA2518’s arrivals were an hour or more late, against 11.4% across MIA → IND, so the long delays are more common on this number than on the route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – August 2026
Why AA2518 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 AA2518 on MIA → IND. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering November 2023 – August 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies AA2518 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
AA2518 is usually the aircraft’s first flight of the day: the schedule gives it a median of 6.8 hours on the ground at MIA, so its “inbound” is mostly the aircraft’s arrival the evening before.
The aircraft flying AA2518 came in 15 or more minutes late on 25% 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 MIA: 386 of 622 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 |
|---|---|
| AA2518 | 25% |
| Network, same turn | 29% |
A night on the ground absorbs most of a late arrival, so a late inbound matters far less here than on a same-day turn.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 6 hours or more, usually overnight. How often AA2518’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 November 2023 – August 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves MIA late, does that still matter by the time it reaches IND?
AA2518 pushes back an average of 21.7 minutes late and reaches the gate at IND an average of 18.6 minutes late. The 3.1 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 22.1 minutes on the taxiways at MIA, 1.7 minutes shorter than a typical MIA departure in the same hour.
On arrival at IND, AA2518 spends 9.4 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 2.4 minutes longer than a typical IND arrival (7.0 min).
Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block; the hourly comparison is 20,962 MIA departures. Taxi-in is landing to gate, set against 151,052 arrivals at IND. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – August 2026
The hour it leaves MIA
AA2518 has one departure time, 8:59 PM, so this is what that hour at MIA is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 20,962 departures from MIA are scheduled in the 8 PM–9 PM hour over the period, against 349,146 across the whole day.
AA2518 is scheduled out of MIA at 8:59 PM, in the 8 PM–9 PM bank. Departures from MIA in that hour arrive on time 65.0% of the time against 73.2% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 8.2 points worse before anything about this particular flight is considered.
Both airport figures cover every destination from MIA, 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 · November 2023 – August 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
Other routes AA2518 has flown
Carriers reassign flight numbers. AA2518 also served these 5 other city pairs in the period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| MIA→CHS Miami to Charleston | November 2, 2025 – April 6, 2026 | 145 | 62.4% |
| CHS→MIA Charleston to Miami | November 2, 2025 – April 6, 2026 | 140 | 72.3% |
| BOS→DCA Boston to Washington | February 13, 2025 – March 5, 2025 | 18 | — |
| DCA→BOS Washington to Boston | February 13, 2025 – March 5, 2025 | 18 | — |
| ORD→JFK Chicago to New York | July 1, 2023 – November 4, 2024 | 342 | 50.0% |
The figures above describe only MIA → IND, the route AA2518 flies now.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
77 min late
against a median of 3 min late
AA2518 has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 3 min late, but the worst tenth are 75 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 630 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering November 2023 – August 2026
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 630 records of AA2518 operating MIA → IND, 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