Airport month record
ATLAPR
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International in April 2026
- Departures
- 26,607
- Month
- April 2026
- National, same month
- 79.8%
- Carriers
- 12
Historical statistics for April 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s April. For today’s conditions at ATL, see live FAA status.
ATL in April lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 79.8%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 26,607 flights, of which United Airlines flew 669 at 85.1% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 85.1% on time across 669 flights.
Key figures
On time
82.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 26,285 completed departures
Avg delay
57 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.00%
Nationally in April: 0.90%
Whole year
77.9%
ATL across all twelve months
These figures cover 26,607 departures from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International in April 2026. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.
Against the year
April next to ATL's other months
Against ATL's own year, April ran 4 points better than the twelve-month rate of 77.9%, which makes it number two of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for ATL in April, at 1.00% against 1.83% across the year. Either side of it, March ran 74.8% on time and May 77.2%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2025 | 25,839 | 86.5% | 54 min | 0.07% | A+ |
| October 2025 | 27,556 | 81.6% | 57 min | 0.20% | B+ |
| November 2025 | 25,888 | 80.3% | 66 min | 2.45% | B |
| December 2025 | 25,764 | 73.2% | 69 min | 2.38% | C |
| January 2026 | 24,595 | 78.3% | 61 min | 5.00% | B− |
| February 2026 | 23,024 | 80.3% | 56 min | 1.49% | B |
| March 2026 | 26,669 | 74.8% | 71 min | 3.46% | C− |
| April 2026 (this page) | 26,607 | 82.1% | 57 min | 1.00% | B |
| May 2026 | 27,535 | 77.2% | 61 min | 1.18% | B |
| June 2026 | 26,961 | 80.1% | 70 min | 1.38% | B |
| July 2026 | 28,068 | 66.5% | 79 min | 2.42% | C |
| August 2026 | 27,221 | 74.1% | 71 min | 1.19% | C |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave ATL in April
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 13 points, against 22 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,916 flights89.7%
- 8am–11am5,486 flights85.7%
- 11am–2pm4,043 flights84.5%
- 2pm–5pm5,109 flights80.4%
- 5pm–8pm4,289 flights77.0%
- 8pm–5am5,764 flights79.7%
Scale runs 70% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.7% of the time, against 77.0% for the evening window. That is 13 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 5,764 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 86.0% on time and Tuesday the weakest at 73.3%, a spread of 13 points.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at ATL in April
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 85.1% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 63.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 426 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 20,246 | 83.8% | 51 min | 1.10% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,885 | 68.7% | 63 min | 0.80% | C+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,302 | 81.0% | 46 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 669 | 85.1% | 94 min | 0.60% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 596 | 78.5% | 119 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 547 | 82.8% | 69 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 426 | 63.2% | 70 min | 2.82% | D |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 281 | 85.1% | 124 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 275 | 79.9% | 56 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 218 | 80.7% | 80 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 86 | 88.1% | 115 min | 2.33% | A |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 76 | 73.3% | 83 min | 1.32% | C |
The spread between United and Spirit is 22 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 22 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of ATL in April
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATL to MCO · Orlando | 760 | 77.4% | 57 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| ATL to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 713 | 74.1% | 63 min | 0.98% | C+ |
| ATL to LGA · New York | 640 | 75.7% | 53 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| ATL to MIA · Miami | 573 | 74.4% | 73 min | 0.17% | C+ |
| ATL to DCA · Washington | 564 | 72.1% | 62 min | 0.35% | C+ |
| ATL to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 561 | 76.8% | 82 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| ATL to TPA · Tampa | 557 | 80.0% | 51 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| ATL to ORD · Chicago | 554 | 67.4% | 104 min | 3.07% | C− |
| ATL to EWR · Newark | 526 | 82.7% | 47 min | 1.33% | B |
| ATL to PHL · Philadelphia | 491 | 79.1% | 59 min | 1.22% | B |
| ATL to IAH · Houston | 469 | 80.5% | 57 min | 0.43% | B+ |
| ATL to BOS · Boston | 444 | 76.1% | 51 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| ATL to DEN · Denver | 442 | 80.6% | 42 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| ATL to BWI · Baltimore | 440 | 82.3% | 52 min | 0.68% | B+ |
| ATL to DTW · Detroit | 426 | 84.8% | 40 min | 0.94% | B+ |
| ATL to LAS · Las Vegas | 419 | 74.2% | 57 min | 0.24% | C+ |
| ATL to LAX · Los Angeles | 380 | 76.3% | 54 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ATL to BNA · Nashville | 379 | 84.7% | 53 min | 1.85% | B |
| ATL to RDU · Raleigh | 371 | 79.1% | 48 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| ATL to AUS · Austinthin sample | 364 | 86.8% | 52 min | 0.27% | A+ |
| ATL to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 361 | 83.3% | 60 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| ATL to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 358 | 77.9% | 48 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ATL to IAD · Washingtonthin sample | 354 | 84.6% | 57 min | 1.13% | B |
| ATL to PBI · West Palm Beachthin sample | 337 | 77.3% | 47 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| ATL to MSY · New Orleansthin sample | 335 | 85.0% | 55 min | 0.60% | A+ |
Delay causes
What held ATL up in April
Carrier accounts for 45% of the 270,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Carrier
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 21%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 45%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 122,000 of the 270,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 270,018 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.00% against a national 0.90%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.21%.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.8% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 6.4% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
What to do with this
Flying from ATL in April
For a April trip through ATL: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 82.1% on time with 1.00% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL), the whole year
- ATL in September86.5%
- ATL in October81.6%
- ATL in November80.3%
- ATL in December73.2%
- ATL in January78.3%
- ATL in February80.3%
- ATL in March74.8%
- ATL in May77.2%
- ATL in June80.1%
- ATL in July66.5%
- ATL in August74.1%
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.