Flight profile · American Airlines
AA2540
Omaha (OMA) to Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW) · scheduled 5:00 AM – 7:10 AM
How AA2540 performs
1,117 operations, July 2023 – July 2026.
AA2540 arrived on time 86.0% of the time, against 75.6% for all OMA → DFW flights, so this departure is 10.4 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against American Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 11.0 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 1,117 operations, July 2023 – July 2026 · If AA2540 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
What stands out
How AA2540 compares to other flight numbers, not just to itself.
This flight runs unusually far ahead of the carrier's own average on this route, better than 93% of 11,589 comparable flight numbers.
86.0% on time for this specific departure, against 75.0% for the same carrier's other flights on this route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · The one thing about this specific departure that ranks most extreme against every other published flight number, out of everything FlyerIntel checks — shown only when something clears a real statistical bar, not for every flight.
Where AA2540 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 AA2540 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA2540 | 86.0% | 1.79% | -13 min | 4.9% | 1,117 |
| American Airlines on OMA → DFW | 75.0% | 2.35% | -6 min | 10.8% | 4,162 |
| All OMA → DFW flights | 75.6% | 2.32% | -6 min | 10.6% | 4,691 |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
Why AA2540 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 AA2540 on OMA → DFW. 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 AA2540 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, AA2540 pushed back an average of 12 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 9 minutes late.
Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into OMA just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 1,066 of 1,097 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA2540 | 36% | 11% | 8% |
| Network, same turn | 33% | 24% | 11% |
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 3 to 6 hours. How often AA2540’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is about the same as the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often AA2540 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 OMA late, does that still matter by the time it reaches DFW?
AA2540 pushes back an average of 13.2 minutes late and reaches the gate at DFW an average of 5.0 minutes late. The 8.2 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. It spends 16.7 minutes on the taxiways at OMA, 1.0 minutes longer than a typical OMA departure in the same hour.
On arrival at DFW, AA2540 spends 13.1 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 about what any arrival at DFW spends on the ground before reaching the gate.
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 DFW. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 4,894 departures from OMA scheduled in the clock hour AA2540 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at DFW (961,642 flights), not just AA2540’s own. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
The hour it leaves OMA
Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. AA2540 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 4,894 departures from OMA are scheduled in the 5 AM–6 AM hour over the period, against 75,007 across the whole day.
AA2540 is scheduled out of OMA at 5:00 AM, in the 5 AM–6 AM bank. Departures from OMA in that hour arrive on time 89.5% of the time against 81.7% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 7.7 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
The two airport figures cover every departure from OMA 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.
By day of week
Does AA2540 run worse on particular days?
Thursday is historically the most reliable day and Wednesday the least, a gap of 8.9 percentage points.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Days with fewer than 120 operations are not scored.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
24 min late
against a median of 13 min early
Percentiles over 1,117 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 1,117 records of AA2540 operating OMA → DFW, 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