How AI Is Helping American Airlines Hold Flights For Passengers

People are using artificial intelligence (AI) for some strange purposes but some airlines put the tech to more practical use. RIyadh Air uses AI to handle some key operations tasks like air traffic management, predictive maintenance, and risk anticipation; passengers are more likely to notice American Airlines' in-house tool that delays connecting flights for passengers after delays on their initial legs. In May 2025, American started testing a new system that puts some departures on a short delay to allow connecting passengers enough time to change planes.

 If the first stage of a journey is delayed, many passengers are forced to hurry to the following gate before the boarding door on their connecting flight closes 15 minutes prior to departure. Although a missed connection  usuallt just means getting re-booked on a later flight it can disrupt existing plans for lodging and ground transportation. In a press release before last summer's travel season, American said it was ready to roll out the system at its busy Dallas-Fort Worth hub with plans to expand it to Charlotte (CLT) and other hubs over the summer. The statement notes that the system "identifies departing flights with connecting customers who might miss their flight. If the airline determines it can delay the flight without any impact to the airline's schedule, we will propose a short hold to get those connecting customers onboard. The policy of delaying connections for passengers on a tight itinerary is nothing new, but prior to this it was a manual process done by in-flight personnel in communication with ground crews. The AI-powered system processes this data more quickly and on a larger scale than the old-fashioned method while also providing real-time flight status updates to customers via the airline's mobile app.

In a conversation with AFAR magazine, American Airlines spokesperson Luisa Barrientos Flores revealed that flights are held for an average of ten minutes using the AI-driven Connect Assist system. "American considers a complex algorithm that takes dozens of inputs that the tool analyzes to ensure there is no downline impact to the overall schedule or customer itineraries," she added. The new system came in tandem with the rollout of more airport check-in kiosks for time-strapped passengers, but American isn't the only carrier to use AI to prevent missed connections. United Airlines has held flights for passengers using its ConnectionSaver system since 2019, although passengers have to enable ConnectionSaver manually in order to get the benefit and receive real-time flight updates.

The system hasn't been implemented everywhere American Airlines passengers change planes, but since its rollout plenty of them have discussed the ConnectAssist system online. u/Meowcat1029 posted to the r/American Airlines subreddit commenting on their experience with the service during a connection from Charlotte to Fort Lauderdale, and it kicked off a lively discussion. While some commenters told of missed connections prior to the system's rollout, others had already been helped by the AI tool. A user who has since deleted their Reddit account wrote "We just experienced this at DFW the Saturday after Thanksgiving. They actually held the flight for almost an hour as there were so many people connecting onto that particular flight. It was surprising." Retired veteran pilot Richard Levy says flight crews are already familiar with high-tech tools, and American has already employed AI for flight rebooking, schedule forecasting, and tracking crew attendance. The company is also exploring AI-based systems designed to improve baggage logistics and other factors that directly affect the passenger experience.