Rolling delays have been a source of frustration for American Airlines customers for some time. As one outlet recently reported, “What’s most infuriating about delays is when airlines do a poor job communicating with and empowering customers during delays ... in recent times. American’s app and website now share why flights are delayed. American has also gotten better with its self-rebooking capabilities for passengers.”
But rolling delays can be maddening. Especially when an 8:05 p.m. flight is shown to be delayed to 8:35 p.m., and a check of the incoming plane shows that it’s delayed and not due in your airport until 8:45 p.m. Any passenger can do the math and see that there’s no logic to the reported delay.
An in-the-know user on X, @JonNYC has commented that American will soon be trying out a new system, a pilot program of sorts, at its Charlotte hub—with the airline estimating boarding time off of the estimated arrival time of the inbound aircraft.
“Program will pilot in CLT and hopefully ease this AA pain point as they implement it ... [I] strongly suspect more to come as well, seems like this is an area of focus,” he said.
For the year 2025, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics ranked American in eight place out of 10 U.S. airlines on on-time arrival for aircraft, with an on-time arrival percentage of 73.52, compared to the leader, Hawaiian Airlines, with an on-time arrival percentage of 81.95.
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