Airport month record

ATLOCT

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International in October 2025

Departures: 27,556
Month: October 2025
National, same month: 79.7%
Carriers: 12

Historical statistics for October 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s October. For today’s conditions at ATL, see live FAA status.

ATL in October lands a B+, 2 points better than the national rate of 79.7%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 27,556 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 566 at 84.7% on time.

SkyWest Airlines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 84.7% on time across 566 flights.

On time

81.6%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 27,451 completed departures

Avg delay

57 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.20%

Nationally in October: 0.53%

Whole year

78.4%

ATL across all twelve months

These figures cover 27,556 departures from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International in October 2025. 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

October next to ATL's other months

Against ATL's own year, October ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 78.4%, which makes it number three of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for ATL in October, at 0.20% against 1.73% across the year. Either side of it, September ran 86.5% on time and November 80.3%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.

ATL month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	28,551	68.8%	75 min	1.59%	C
August 2025	27,353	78.4%	67 min	0.85%	B+
September 2025	25,839	86.5%	54 min	0.07%	A+
October 2025 (this page)	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

Departure window

The best time of day to leave ATL in October

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 15 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,788 flights88.7%
8am–11am5,729 flights87.8%
11am–2pm4,396 flights85.5%
2pm–5pm5,388 flights79.5%
5pm–8pm4,478 flights73.5%
8pm–5am5,777 flights78.5%

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 88.7% of the time, against 73.5% for the evening window. That is 15 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 5,777 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.5% on time and Monday the weakest at 72.7%. 16 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at ATL in October

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. SkyWest Airlines arrives on time 84.7% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 71.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,573 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at ATL in October 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Delta Air Lines	21,033	83.0%	51 min	0.14%	B+
Southwest Airlines	1,624	76.3%	49 min	0.25%	B+
Frontier Airlines	1,573	71.5%	78 min	0.06%	C+
United Airlines	670	81.1%	60 min	0.15%	B+
American Airlines	615	77.9%	112 min	0.33%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	566	84.7%	89 min	0.18%	B+
Spirit Airlines	526	83.9%	75 min	0.57%	B+
Republic Airwaysthin sample	302	73.8%	83 min	2.65%	C
PSA Airlinesthin sample	244	84.0%	74 min	0.00%	B+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	183	72.1%	76 min	1.64%	C
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	144	73.0%	56 min	2.08%	C
Envoy Airthin sample	76	64.5%	49 min	0.00%	D+

The spread between SkyWest and Frontier is 13 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 13 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of ATL in October

Routes from ATL in October 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
ATL to LGA · New York	799	70.9%	74 min	1.63%	C
ATL to MCO · Orlando	664	68.8%	71 min	0.15%	C+
ATL to DCA · Washington	582	77.8%	45 min	0.17%	B+
ATL to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	576	76.8%	63 min	0.69%	B+
ATL to ORD · Chicago	569	75.8%	50 min	0.00%	B+
ATL to EWR · Newark	536	68.9%	61 min	1.12%	C
ATL to BWI · Baltimore	501	80.6%	47 min	0.20%	B+
ATL to FLL · Fort Lauderdale	487	79.0%	57 min	0.21%	B+
ATL to MIA · Miami	485	79.3%	74 min	0.41%	B+
ATL to TPA · Tampa	484	77.0%	57 min	0.21%	B+
ATL to PHL · Philadelphia	474	77.6%	83 min	0.21%	B+
ATL to DEN · Denver	474	78.2%	53 min	0.00%	B+
ATL to IAH · Houston	439	78.9%	61 min	0.46%	B+
ATL to DTW · Detroit	427	85.0%	61 min	0.00%	A+
ATL to LAX · Los Angeles	426	82.6%	72 min	0.00%	B+
ATL to BOS · Boston	425	69.0%	68 min	0.71%	C+
ATL to RDU · Raleigh	416	83.2%	55 min	0.00%	B+
ATL to LAS · Las Vegas	415	75.6%	61 min	0.00%	B+
ATL to AUS · Austin	407	82.8%	54 min	0.00%	B+
ATL to JFK · New York	400	79.7%	84 min	1.00%	B
ATL to CLT · Charlotte	398	82.9%	58 min	0.00%	B+
ATL to MSY · New Orleans	392	82.9%	54 min	0.00%	B+
ATL to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	363	80.7%	52 min	0.00%	B+
ATL to STL · St. Louisthin sample	348	85.6%	53 min	0.00%	A+
ATL to JAX · Jacksonvillethin sample	345	81.2%	55 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held ATL up in October

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 46% of the 288,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

Carrier
46%
Late-arriving aircraft
30%
National Airspace System
22%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%

The largest share of delay minutes, 46%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 134,000 of the 288,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 288,114 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.20%, below the national 0.53% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.9% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 6.3% 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 October

For a October trip through ATL: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 81.6% on time with 0.20% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL), the whole year
ATL in July68.8%
ATL in August78.4%
ATL in September86.5%
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%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures