American Airlines flight tracker: follow every AA flight live

Track every flight worldwide here: Flight Radar.

To track an American Airlines flight right now, use the live radar at the top of this page. It is filtered on the code AAL: every aircraft on the map is an American Airlines flight. Enter a flight number such as AA 2211 in the search box, or click an aircraft symbol to open its details: route, position, altitude, ground speed and estimated arrival time. American and its American Eagle partners operate thousands of departures a day, so there is rarely a minute without an AA aircraft on the map. The radar is a filtered view of the worldwide live flight radar on our homepage.

The AA flight number, and why the radar sometimes says Envoy or PSA

An American Airlines flight number is the code AA followed by one to four digits: AA 1, AA 137, AA 2662. You will find it on your booking confirmation, boarding pass and in the American app. On the radar, mainline American flights fly under the code AAL, which air traffic control pronounces as “American”. AA 137 and AAL137 are the same flight.

The four-digit numbers from roughly AA 3000 to AA 6099 are American Eagle flights. American sells them under its own code, but they are operated by regional partners: Envoy, PSA and Piedmont, which American owns, plus Republic and SkyWest. On the radar those aircraft carry the partner’s code, for example ENY, JIA or PDT, instead of AAL. The tracker still lists these flights under their AA number, so search the number and check the operator line in the details.

Codeshares work the other way around too. American is part of the oneworld alliance and runs a joint transatlantic operation with British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Finnair. An AA flight number to London or Madrid can therefore be operated by a British Airways or Iberia aircraft, and your ticket will say “operated by” that airline. To follow the actual aircraft, track the operating carrier’s number.

Is my American Airlines flight on time?

Search your flight and read the status field. Scheduled means the flight has not left yet, so an empty map is normal. En route means the aircraft is airborne, delayed shows the revised estimate, and landed shows the actual touchdown time. The American app and the radar also differ: the app publishes the airline’s official gate arrival, the radar calculates its estimate from the aircraft’s real position and ground speed. When American reroutes traffic around a line of Texas thunderstorms, the radar usually shows the later arrival first.

If you are meeting someone at the airport, add a margin to the landing time. Between touchdown and the arrivals hall sit taxiing, deplaning and baggage claim. At a giant like Dallas Fort Worth, where American uses five terminals connected by the Skylink train, 30 to 45 minutes after landing is a realistic window.

A useful habit: click your flight and look at the previous leg of the same aircraft. American’s network runs through its hubs all day, so a late inbound aircraft is the most common source of delay. If that leg is still en route shortly before your departure, expect the delay before the app announces it.

Recognizing the American fleet on the radar

American operates close to a thousand mainline aircraft, but the mix is simple to read. The backbone consists of narrow-body jets: the Airbus A321, of which American flies more than any other airline in the world, the A319 and A320, and the Boeing 737-800 and 737 MAX 8. Long-haul routes are flown by the Boeing 777-200ER, 777-300ER, 787-8 and 787-9. American retired its 757s and 767s in 2020, unlike Delta, which still flies both types, so any AA wide-body you see today is a 777 or a 787. American Eagle flights use the Embraer 175, the smaller Embraer 145 flown by Piedmont, and Bombardier CRJ regional jets.

A wide-body under the AAL code heading across an ocean is most likely departing Dallas Fort Worth, Miami, Philadelphia, New York JFK or Los Angeles, where the international network is concentrated. A four-digit AA flight on a small jet is an Eagle service, feeding one of the hubs from a smaller city.

Hubs and banks: watch the wave system live

American does not spread its flights evenly across the day. Dallas Fort Worth, the airline’s largest hub, and Charlotte run banked schedules: a wave of arrivals lands within a short window, passengers connect, and a wave of departures follows. Around a bank you will see dozens of AA aircraft converging on DFW at once, and an hour later the same number fanning out in every direction.

American counts nine hubs in all: Dallas Fort Worth, Charlotte, Chicago O’Hare, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York and Washington Reagan National. Each has a clear role. Miami is the gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean, Philadelphia handles a large share of the transatlantic flights, and Chicago O’Hare, a hub American shares with United, and Phoenix cover the middle of the country and the west. So an AA aircraft over the Gulf south of Florida is very likely a Miami flight, and heavy AA traffic over the North Atlantic in the evening is the Philadelphia and JFK wave heading for Europe.

Frequently asked questions

I land at DFW in one terminal and my connection leaves from another. How much time do I need?
Dallas Fort Worth has five terminals, A through E, and American departs from all of them. The Skylink train connects them inside security, with about ten minutes between the farthest gates, so a domestic connection needs no new screening. An hour between flights is usually comfortable; after an international arrival, add time for passport control and customs.

Why are there so few American flights from Washington National to the West Coast?
Because of the perimeter rule: nonstop flights from Reagan National are limited by federal law to about 1,250 miles, with only a small number of exemptions. American is the largest airline at National, so on the radar you see a dense fan of AA flights to the East and Midwest and just a handful of long westbound flights.

Does American fly wide-body aircraft on domestic routes?
Yes. American positions 777s and 787s between its hubs, so you can find a wide-body on legs such as Dallas Fort Worth to Miami or Los Angeles; click the flight to see the aircraft type.

Flights into Dallas Fort Worth are flying circles on the map. What does that mean?
Those are holding patterns. North Texas thunderstorms regularly force arrivals to wait in the air, and a storm at American’s largest hub ripples through the whole AA network for hours. If you see holding stacks near DFW, check your own flight’s status early, even when it departs from another city.