Carrier performance at one airport
DL→RDU
Delta Air Lines at Raleigh-Durham International
- Departures
- 11,943
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 13
- Rank here
- #1 of 11
Delta Air Lines at Raleigh 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 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 11,943 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 11,943 at 84.7% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 6 points ahead of the 78.9% weighted average across all carriers at RDU. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
84.7%
11,719 completed departures
Avg delay
80 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.72%
At RDU, this carrier only
Rank here
#1
Of 11 carriers clearing the floor at RDU
These figures cover 12,000 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 RDU, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 84.7% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 63.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,695 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 11,943 | 84.7% | 80 min | 1.72% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,220 | 81.3% | 93 min | 1.29% | B |
| American Airlines | 9,463 | 80.6% | 97 min | 1.89% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 8,886 | 79.8% | 52 min | 1.29% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 686 | 75.8% | 51 min | 1.02% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 3,064 | 75.5% | 80 min | 4.14% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 7,491 | 74.4% | 76 min | 4.34% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 4,324 | 73.4% | 93 min | 2.52% | C |
| Envoy Air | 1,135 | 71.3% | 77 min | 3.00% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 405 | 64.2% | 75 min | 7.65% | D− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,695 | 63.9% | 95 min | 6.90% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 7.7% 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 RDU
Delta Air Lines operates 13 routes out of RDU 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RDU to ATL · Atlanta | 3,812 | 88.3% | 82 min | 1.50% | A |
| RDU to BOS · Boston | 1,435 | 79.6% | 89 min | 2.72% | B |
| RDU to DTW · Detroit | 1,333 | 88.6% | 85 min | 1.58% | A |
| RDU to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,228 | 83.4% | 86 min | 1.22% | B |
| RDU to MCO · Orlando | 1,025 | 82.4% | 75 min | 2.24% | B |
| RDU to TPA · Tampa | 651 | 84.7% | 72 min | 1.84% | B |
| RDU to SLC · Salt Lake City | 373 | 84.5% | 58 min | 1.07% | B |
| RDU to LAX · Los Angeles | 365 | 80.1% | 67 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| RDU to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample | 364 | 80.8% | 67 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| RDU to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 364 | 82.8% | 49 min | 1.37% | B |
| RDU to MIA · Miamithin sample | 360 | 84.2% | 82 min | 1.67% | B |
| RDU to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 344 | 72.7% | 95 min | 4.07% | C− |
| RDU to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 272 | 89.2% | 49 min | 1.10% | A |
Flight by flight
Delta Air Lines flight numbers from RDU
14 Delta Air Lines flight numbers leaving RDU flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
- DL 1530to ATL 08:5089.3%
- DL 1022to BOS 09:2388.0%
- DL 1033to BOS 13:1074.5%
- DL 1054to BOS 07:0092.5%
- DL 2393to BOS 19:5571.7%
- DL 1388to DTW 05:3093.6%
- DL 1038to FLL 12:1380.8%
- DL 1319to MCO 17:0369.8%
- DL 1337to MCO 07:0592.0%
- DL 890to MIA 08:0584.2%
- DL 2538to MSP 06:0090.0%
- DL 354to SEA 07:3683.5%
- DL 1275to TPA 18:0474.8%
- DL 1279to TPA 06:3092.7%
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 19 points, against 21 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am3,744 flights90.7%
- 8am–11am1,669 flights89.3%
- 11am–2pm2,660 flights83.4%
- 2pm–5pm1,096 flights80.5%
- 5pm–8pm2,384 flights77.7%
- 8pm–5am390 flights71.7%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.7% of the time, against 71.7% for the overnight window. That is 19 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 3,744 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 75.7% on time, 14 points below September, the best at 90.1%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 1,109 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 36%Carrier
- 34%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 52,000 of the 142,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 142,375 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.72% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.16%.
6.1% 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 11,943 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. September runs 90.1% on time and July 75.7%, a swing of 14 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 11,719 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at RDU
How often is Delta Air Lines at RDU delayed?
About one flight in seven arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 15.3% of the 11,943 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 RDU?
Delta Air Lines leads at 84.7% on time across 11,943 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 63.9%, a gap of 21 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 RDU?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.7% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 71.7%, 19 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 RDU?
July is the weakest month at 75.7% on time, compared with 90.1% in September. Across the year that is 14 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.