Carrier performance at one airport
DL→BNA
Delta Air Lines at Nashville International
- Departures
- 9,316
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 8
- Rank here
- #1 of 13
Delta Air Lines at Nashville earns a B. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 7 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 9,316 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,316 at 84.9% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 9 points ahead of the 76.3% weighted average across all carriers at BNA. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
84.9%
9,144 completed departures
Avg delay
81 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.74%
At BNA, this carrier only
Rank here
#1
Of 13 carriers clearing the floor at BNA
These figures cover 9,316 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 11 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Against the competition
Every carrier at BNA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 84.9% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 71.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,161 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 9,316 | 84.9% | 81 min | 1.74% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,723 | 77.0% | 83 min | 1.43% | B |
| American Airlines | 9,460 | 76.5% | 99 min | 2.33% | B |
| Allegiant Air | 2,267 | 76.4% | 96 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,338 | 76.1% | 82 min | 3.51% | B− |
| Envoy Air | 2,182 | 75.4% | 69 min | 2.34% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 3,103 | 75.3% | 100 min | 2.16% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 61,339 | 75.3% | 50 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| Republic Airways | 7,222 | 75.2% | 68 min | 3.53% | B− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,411 | 73.4% | 86 min | 5.60% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 860 | 73.3% | 89 min | 1.98% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,415 | 72.8% | 68 min | 3.25% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,161 | 71.2% | 49 min | 1.12% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 5.6% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where Delta Air Lines flies from BNA
Delta Air Lines operates 8 routes out of BNA with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNA to ATL · Atlanta | 3,360 | 87.1% | 72 min | 2.02% | A |
| BNA to DTW · Detroit | 1,404 | 86.1% | 99 min | 1.92% | A |
| BNA to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,213 | 86.9% | 64 min | 1.57% | A |
| BNA to SLC · Salt Lake City | 933 | 87.5% | 54 min | 0.64% | A+ |
| BNA to LAX · Los Angeles | 909 | 85.5% | 61 min | 1.32% | A |
| BNA to BOS · Boston | 533 | 71.5% | 105 min | 0.75% | C+ |
| BNA to SEA · Seattle | 511 | 83.4% | 66 min | 0.78% | B+ |
| BNA to LGA · New York | 450 | 68.7% | 133 min | 4.89% | C− |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,868 flights91.6%
- 8am–11am1,521 flights89.2%
- 11am–2pm827 flights83.2%
- 2pm–5pm1,718 flights81.9%
- 5pm–8pm2,169 flights76.7%
- 8pm–5am213 flights75.2%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.6% of the time, against 75.2% for the overnight window. That is 16 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 2,868 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 78.1% on time, against 90.9% in August. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. May was the busiest month here, with 913 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 40%Carrier
- 39%Late-arriving aircraft
- 18%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
39% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 113,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 112,801 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.74% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.11%.
5.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the a little over an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 9,316 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. August runs 90.9% on time and December 78.1%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 9,144 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at BNA
How often is Delta Air Lines at BNA delayed?
About one flight in seven arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 15.1% of the 9,316 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Delta Air Lines at BNA?
Delta Air Lines leads at 84.9% on time across 9,316 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 71.2%, a gap of 14 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on Delta Air Lines at BNA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.6% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 75.2%, 16 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are December delays on Delta Air Lines at BNA?
December is the weakest month at 78.1% on time, compared with 90.9% in August. Across the year that is 13 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.