Flight profile · American Airlines
AA581
Miami (MIA) to Chicago (ORD) · scheduled 6:40 AM – 9:04 AM
How AA581 performs
623 operations, November 2023 – August 2026.
Between its first and last recorded date on MIA → ORD, AA581 averaged about 4 operations a week (623 in 1,031 days, cancelled ones included).
AA581 arrived on time 88.6% of the time, against 74.0% for all MIA → ORD flights, so this departure is 14.6 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against American Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 13.8 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 623 operations, November 2023 – August 2026 · If AA581 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 AA581 compares to other flight numbers, not just to itself.
This flight runs unusually far ahead of the MIA → ORD route as a whole, better than 97% of 12,358 comparable flight numbers.
88.6% on time for this specific departure, against 74.0% for every MIA → ORD flight.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – August 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 AA581 is right now
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Against the rest of the route
| Flight or route | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA581 | 88.6% | 0.80% | -10 min | 3.1% | 623 |
| American Airlines on MIA → ORD | 74.8% | 1.24% | -7 min | 9.5% | 9,311 |
| All MIA → ORD flights | 74.0% | 1.30% | -6 min | 9.9% | 13,984 |
AA581 cancelled 5 of 623 operations (0.80%), below the 1.30% for MIA → ORD.
3.1% of AA581’s arrivals were an hour or more late, against 9.9% across MIA → ORD, so the long delays are less common on this number than on the route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – August 2026
Why AA581 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for AA581 on MIA → ORD. 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 AA581 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
AA581 is usually the aircraft’s first flight of the day: the schedule gives it a median of 8.7 hours on the ground at MIA, so its “inbound” is mostly the aircraft’s arrival the evening before.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, AA581 pushed back an average of 1 minute early; when it came in on time or early, an average of 0 minutes early.
Matched by tail number to the aircraft’s previous flight into MIA: 374 of 618 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 | Left 15+ late after a late inbound | Left 15+ late after an on-time inbound |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA581 | 40% | 7% | 7% |
| Network, same turn | 29% | 12% | 9% |
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 AA581’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is higher than the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often AA581 left 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s.
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 ORD?
AA581 pushes back an average of 0.8 minutes late and reaches the gate at ORD an average of 5.0 minutes early. The 5.8 minutes between those two figures are slack the published schedule already carries, so on average a late pushback on this flight is made up before the gate. It spends 16.7 minutes on the taxiways at MIA, 1.2 minutes shorter than a typical MIA departure in the same hour.
On arrival at ORD, AA581 spends 17.0 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 1.0 minutes shorter than a typical ORD arrival (18.0 min).
Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block; the hourly comparison is 15,471 MIA departures. Taxi-in is landing to gate, set against 985,848 arrivals at ORD. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · November 2023 – August 2026
The hour it leaves MIA
AA581 has one departure time, 6:40 AM, so this is what that hour at MIA is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 15,471 departures from MIA are scheduled in the 6 AM–7 AM hour over the period, against 349,146 across the whole day.
AA581 is scheduled out of MIA at 6:40 AM, in the 6 AM–7 AM bank. Departures from MIA in that hour arrive on time 89.7% of the time against 73.2% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 16.5 points better 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 AA581 has flown
Carriers reassign flight numbers. AA581 also served these 2 other city pairs in the period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| MIA→PHL Miami to Philadelphia | July 1, 2023 – November 4, 2024 | 250 | 68.7% |
| CLT→LAX Charlotte to Los Angeles | June 5, 2024 – September 3, 2024 | 89 | — |
The figures above describe only MIA → ORD, the route AA581 flies now.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
16 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 623 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering November 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA581 this flight | American Airlines | 88.6% | 10 min early | 623 |
| UA1983 | United Airlines | 81.7% | 8 min early | 984 |
Among all 2 departures on this route with at least 600 operations, AA581 has the highest on-time rate. 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 623 records of AA581 operating MIA → ORD, 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