Carrier performance at one airport
DL→BNA
Delta Air Lines at Nashville International
- Departures
- 9,366
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 8
- Rank here
- #1 of 13
Delta Air Lines at Nashville lands a B, 6 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 9,366 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,366 at 83.6% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 9 points ahead of the 74.8% 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
83.6%
9,184 completed departures
Avg delay
79 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 9,366 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 10 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 83.6% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 71.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,596 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 9,366 | 83.6% | 79 min | 1.83% | B |
| American Airlines | 9,410 | 77.7% | 101 min | 2.08% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,740 | 76.8% | 80 min | 4.25% | B− |
| United Airlines | 7,009 | 76.2% | 85 min | 1.48% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,977 | 75.5% | 101 min | 2.25% | B |
| Allegiant Air | 2,232 | 75.5% | 97 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| Republic Airways | 7,044 | 75.4% | 69 min | 3.63% | B− |
| Envoy Air | 2,385 | 75.1% | 70 min | 2.35% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 902 | 74.3% | 97 min | 2.11% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 62,867 | 72.9% | 50 min | 0.82% | C+ |
| PSA Airlines | 1,428 | 72.4% | 103 min | 5.81% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,162 | 72.0% | 46 min | 0.95% | C+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,596 | 71.2% | 76 min | 5.39% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 5.8% 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 | 3,368 | 86.1% | 78 min | 2.05% | A |
| BNA to DTW · Detroit | 1,406 | 86.0% | 93 min | 1.85% | A |
| BNA to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,220 | 85.6% | 56 min | 1.89% | A |
| BNA to SLC · Salt Lake City | 933 | 87.1% | 61 min | 0.64% | A+ |
| BNA to LAX · Los Angeles | 911 | 84.1% | 60 min | 1.10% | B |
| BNA to BOS · Boston | 559 | 69.3% | 103 min | 1.61% | C |
| BNA to SEA · Seattle | 516 | 79.8% | 60 min | 1.16% | B |
| BNA to LGA · New York | 450 | 65.9% | 108 min | 4.89% | C− |
Flight by flight
Delta Air Lines flight numbers from BNA
11 Delta Air Lines flight numbers leaving BNA flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
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 20 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,890 flights90.3%
- 8am–11am1,535 flights89.3%
- 11am–2pm780 flights82.1%
- 2pm–5pm1,851 flights79.8%
- 5pm–8pm2,172 flights75.4%
- 8pm–5am138 flights70.5%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.3% of the time, against 70.5% for the overnight window. That is 20 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 2,890 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 75.9% on time, 13 points below February, the best at 89.0%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. May was the busiest month here, with 913 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 39%Late-arriving aircraft
- 38%Carrier
- 20%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. Across 118,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 to one. The split is drawn from 118,134 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.83% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.12%.
6.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 9,366 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. February runs 89.0% on time and July 75.9%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 9,184 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 six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 16.4% of the 9,366 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% 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 83.6% on time across 9,366 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 71.2%, a gap of 12 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 90.3% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 70.5%, 20 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 July delays on Delta Air Lines at BNA?
July is the weakest month at 75.9% on time, compared with 89.0% in February. 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.