Flight profile · American Airlines
AA709
Jacksonville (JAX) to Philadelphia (PHL) · scheduled 7:00 AM – 9:10 AM
How AA709 performs
620 operations, July 2023 – July 2026.
AA709 arrived on time 89.1% of the time, against 79.0% for all JAX → PHL flights, so this departure is 10.1 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against American Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 10.3 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 620 operations, July 2023 – July 2026 · If AA709 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 AA709 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 92% of 11,589 comparable flight numbers.
89.1% on time for this specific departure, against 78.8% 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 AA709 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA709 | 89.1% | 0.97% | -11 min | 4.1% | 620 |
| American Airlines on JAX → PHL | 78.8% | 1.64% | -6 min | 8.3% | 2,316 |
| All JAX → PHL flights | 79.0% | 2.35% | -8 min | 9.5% | 4,846 |
AA709 has cancelled 0.97% of its scheduled departures (6 of 620), against 2.35% for all JAX → PHL flights — this specific departure cancels 1.4 percentage points less often than the route as a whole. Different flight numbers on the same route can carry different aircraft, crews and schedules, so this is a fact about AA709 specifically, not about the route it flies.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
Why AA709 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for AA709 on JAX → PHL. 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 AA709 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
AA709 is usually the aircraft’s first flight of the day: the schedule gives it a median of 9 hours on the ground at JAX, so its “inbound” is mostly the aircraft’s arrival the evening before.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, AA709 pushed back an average of 14 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 1 minute early.
Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into JAX just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 571 of 614 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA709 | 35% | 13% | 8% |
| Network, same turn | 29% | 12% | 9% |
A night on the ground absorbs most of a late arrival, so a late inbound matters far less on a turn this long than on a same-day one.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 6 hours or more, usually overnight. How often AA709’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is higher than the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often AA709 left 15 or more minutes late is about the same as 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 JAX late, does that still matter by the time it reaches PHL?
AA709 pushes back an average of 8.5 minutes late and reaches the gate at PHL an average of 3.9 minutes late. The 4.6 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. Its 14.2 minutes on the taxiways at JAX is about what any departure from the airport in that hour spends.
On arrival at PHL, AA709 spends 7.1 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 1.1 minutes shorter than a typical PHL arrival (8.2 min).
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 PHL. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 9,432 departures from JAX scheduled in the clock hour AA709 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at PHL (305,143 flights), not just AA709’s own. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
The hour it leaves JAX
Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. AA709 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 9,432 departures from JAX are scheduled in the 7 AM–8 AM hour over the period, against 90,308 across the whole day.
AA709 is scheduled out of JAX at 7:00 AM, in the 7 AM–8 AM bank. Departures from JAX in that hour arrive on time 89.0% of the time against 80.0% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 8.9 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
The two airport figures cover every departure from JAX 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.
Other routes AA709 has flown
A flight number is a slot in a schedule, and carriers reassign it. These are the other city pairs this number served in the analysis period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| ABQ→DFW Albuquerque to Dallas–Fort Worth | April 4, 2024 – April 6, 2026 | 366 | 84.6% |
| PHX→PHL Phoenix to Philadelphia | December 5–18, 2024 | 14 | — |
| ATL→PHL Atlanta to Philadelphia | November 29, 2024 | 1 | — |
Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route AA709 currently operates. Blending them would produce an average of two different flights.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
18 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 620 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 620 records of AA709 operating JAX → PHL, 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
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