Airport month record
ATLJUL
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International in July 2026
- Departures
- 28,068
- Month
- July 2026
- National, same month
- 71.7%
- Carriers
- 11
Historical statistics for July 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s July. For today’s conditions at ATL, see live FAA status.
ATL in July draws a C. About one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, and the typical late arrival is a little over an hour behind schedule. Build slack into anything you connect to. That rests on 28,068 flights, of which United Airlines flew 716 at 72.5% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 72.5% on time across 716 flights.
Key figures
On time
66.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 27,250 completed departures
Avg delay
79 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.42%
Nationally in July: 2.62%
Whole year
77.9%
ATL across all twelve months
These figures cover 28,068 departures from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International in July 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
July next to ATL's other months
Against ATL's own year, July ran 11 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 77.9%, which makes it the worst of the twelve months in the data. Either side of it, June ran 80.1% on time and August 74.1%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better 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 | 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 (this page) | 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 July
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 38 points, against 20 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,182 flights86.4%
- 8am–11am5,645 flights86.2%
- 11am–2pm4,605 flights78.6%
- 2pm–5pm5,305 flights59.0%
- 5pm–8pm4,560 flights48.2%
- 8pm–5am5,771 flights51.1%
Scale runs 40% to 90%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 48.2% on time, against 86.4% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 5,771 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.8% on time and Sunday the weakest at 54.4%, a spread of 27 points.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at ATL in July
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 72.5% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 52.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,975 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 21,774 | 68.1% | 72 min | 1.98% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,975 | 52.4% | 90 min | 5.11% | F− |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,353 | 64.0% | 76 min | 0.67% | D+ |
| United Airlines | 716 | 72.5% | 91 min | 3.63% | C− |
| American Airlines | 706 | 63.6% | 135 min | 1.98% | D |
| SkyWest Airlines | 508 | 65.0% | 135 min | 1.97% | C |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 311 | 64.1% | 123 min | 9.00% | D− |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 306 | 54.5% | 101 min | 10.13% | F− |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 246 | 58.3% | 114 min | 10.98% | D− |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 115 | 73.5% | 51 min | 1.74% | C |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 58 | 74.1% | 64 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Frontier Airlines cancels 5.1% 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
Busiest routes out of ATL in July
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATL to MCO · Orlando | 694 | 56.0% | 94 min | 2.02% | D |
| ATL to LGA · New York | 689 | 58.5% | 87 min | 10.60% | D− |
| ATL to ORD · Chicago | 604 | 68.0% | 98 min | 3.31% | C− |
| ATL to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 602 | 62.9% | 78 min | 3.49% | D− |
| ATL to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 581 | 61.8% | 109 min | 0.86% | D+ |
| ATL to DCA · Washington | 570 | 52.5% | 92 min | 5.96% | F− |
| ATL to PHL · Philadelphia | 564 | 60.2% | 107 min | 7.27% | D− |
| ATL to MIA · Miami | 558 | 63.4% | 93 min | 3.41% | D− |
| ATL to TPA · Tampa | 545 | 59.3% | 83 min | 1.65% | D |
| ATL to DEN · Denver | 532 | 76.1% | 80 min | 1.50% | B |
| ATL to EWR · Newark | 519 | 56.4% | 105 min | 9.25% | D− |
| ATL to BWI · Baltimore | 498 | 59.4% | 77 min | 5.02% | D− |
| ATL to BOS · Boston | 467 | 60.3% | 86 min | 3.00% | D |
| ATL to IAH · Houston | 426 | 65.6% | 66 min | 1.88% | C |
| ATL to LAX · Los Angeles | 422 | 67.7% | 86 min | 0.95% | C+ |
| ATL to DTW · Detroit | 420 | 56.7% | 76 min | 0.24% | D+ |
| ATL to RDU · Raleigh | 410 | 65.3% | 71 min | 1.46% | C |
| ATL to BNA · Nashville | 403 | 64.8% | 76 min | 1.24% | D |
| ATL to LAS · Las Vegas | 396 | 67.9% | 74 min | 1.26% | C |
| ATL to AUS · Austin | 391 | 70.5% | 73 min | 0.77% | C+ |
| ATL to JAX · Jacksonville | 382 | 64.1% | 66 min | 2.09% | D |
| ATL to CLT · Charlotte | 380 | 64.3% | 85 min | 1.84% | D |
| ATL to IAD · Washington | 366 | 66.6% | 89 min | 4.37% | C− |
| ATL to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 349 | 61.1% | 87 min | 7.16% | D− |
| ATL to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 348 | 68.5% | 69 min | 0.57% | C+ |
Delay causes
What held ATL up in July
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 719,000 reported delay minutes.
- 37%Carrier
- 37%Late-arriving aircraft
- 20%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
37% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 719,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 718,783 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.42% against a national 2.62%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.50%.
15.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 11.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
What to do with this
Flying from ATL in July
For a July trip through ATL: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 86.4% on time, and with 15.2% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in September would.
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 April82.1%
- ATL in May77.2%
- ATL in June80.1%
- 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.