Carrier performance at one airport
DL→BNA
Delta Air Lines at Nashville International
- Departures
- 9,282
- Period
- June 2025 to May 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 77.4%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs an hour and a half. That rests on 9,282 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,282 at 84.6% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 8 points ahead of the 76.7% 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
84.6%
9,099 completed departures
Avg delay
84 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.83%
At BNA, this carrier only
Rank here
#1
Of 13 carriers clearing the floor at BNA
These figures cover 9,282 flights between June 2025 and May 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 84.6% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 70.1%. 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) | 9,282 | 84.6% | 84 min | 1.83% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,670 | 76.9% | 85 min | 1.41% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 60,657 | 76.4% | 51 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| Allegiant Air | 2,319 | 76.1% | 97 min | 0.60% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 3,107 | 75.7% | 101 min | 1.87% | B |
| American Airlines | 9,458 | 75.6% | 97 min | 2.34% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,725 | 75.5% | 81 min | 3.49% | B− |
| Envoy Air | 2,120 | 74.8% | 69 min | 2.55% | C |
| Republic Airways | 7,294 | 74.6% | 69 min | 3.72% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,417 | 72.2% | 71 min | 3.46% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,388 | 72.2% | 84 min | 5.55% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 868 | 72.0% | 89 min | 1.84% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,161 | 70.1% | 49 min | 1.12% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 5.5% 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 | 3,359 | 86.5% | 72 min | 2.20% | A |
| BNA to DTW · Detroit | 1,399 | 85.5% | 102 min | 2.00% | A |
| BNA to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,214 | 87.6% | 68 min | 1.48% | A |
| BNA to SLC · Salt Lake City | 934 | 86.7% | 60 min | 0.75% | A+ |
| BNA to LAX · Los Angeles | 908 | 85.2% | 65 min | 1.54% | A |
| BNA to BOS · Boston | 509 | 70.8% | 106 min | 0.59% | C+ |
| BNA to SEA · Seattle | 504 | 82.9% | 58 min | 0.40% | B+ |
| BNA to LGA · New York | 452 | 70.0% | 152 min | 5.31% | 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 15 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,828 flights91.4%
- 8am–11am1,511 flights89.5%
- 11am–2pm877 flights83.2%
- 2pm–5pm1,671 flights81.2%
- 5pm–8pm2,146 flights76.3%
- 8pm–5am249 flights75.3%
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 91.4% of the time, against 75.3% 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.
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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 41%Carrier
- 38%Late-arriving aircraft
- 18%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
38% 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 118,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 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.
Cancellations sit at 1.83% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.14%.
5.8% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. 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 an hour and a half kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 9,282 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.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at BNA
How often is Delta Air Lines at BNA delayed?
Roughly one flight in six arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 15.4% of the 9,282 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Delta Air Lines at BNA?
Delta Air Lines leads at 84.6% on time across 9,282 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 70.1%, a gap of 15 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 91.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 75.3%, 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, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.