Flight number record
DL 1048
Delta Air Lines · Minneapolis to Atlanta
- Route
- MSP → ATL
- Departs
- 12:45
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 1048, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 1048 lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
Key figures
On time
78.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 362 completed flights
Avg delay
56 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.55%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
6.9%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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.
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Schedule
When DL 1048 flies
DL 1048 flies MSP to ATL without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 12:45, used on 213 of 365 flights, with 12:55 (45 flights) next.
- Departs 12:45213 flights58.4%
- Departs 12:5545 flights12.3%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of scheduled departures at each local time. Times used on fewer than one flight in ten are not listed.
A 12:45 departure sits in the 11am–2pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 78.3%, and DL 1048 runs level with that at 78.2%. Midday slots inherit some of the morning's delays without yet carrying the full weight of the evening's.
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Against the route
DL 1048 next to MSP to ATL
Every carrier on MSP to ATL combined arrived on time 81.7% of the time across 3,489 flights, so DL 1048 is 4 points behind it. Delta flew 3,207 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 83.6% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight trails by 3 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 1048 | 365 | 78.2% | 56 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| All Delta Air Lines on MSP–ATL | 3,207 | 83.6% | 67 min | 0.47% | B+ |
| All carriers on MSP–ATL | 3,489 | 81.7% | 67 min | 0.49% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 1048 quarter by quarter
DL 1048 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jan–Mar 2026 at 89.8% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 59.0%, a swing of 31 points on roughly 73 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights83.3%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights82.6%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights89.8%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights73.6%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights59.0%
Scale runs 50% to 95%.
By weekday, DL 1048 ranged from 71.2% on Friday to 82.7% on Wednesday. With about 52 flights behind each day, a spread of 12 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 1048 runs when it is late
DL 1048 often beats the schedule: 97 of 362 completed flights, 27%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 79 late arrivals split 33 under half an hour, 21 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 25 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early97 flights26.8%
- Within 15 min186 flights51.4%
- 15–29 min late33 flights9.1%
- 30–59 min late21 flights5.8%
- 1–2 hours late15 flights4.1%
- 2+ hours late10 flights2.8%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 362 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
22 of 82 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 27% of them. In the other direction, 19 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at ATL.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 1048
The latest arrival of the period was on 21 July 2026, 4 hours 20 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 21 July 2026 | 4 hours 20 minutes | Carrier |
| 28 April 2026 | 3 hours 33 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 19 May 2026 | 3 hours 12 minutes | Carrier |
| 3 June 2026 | 2 hours 51 minutes | Carrier |
| 16 July 2026 | 2 hours 39 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why DL 1048 runs late
Carrier accounts for 58% of the 4,422 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 58%Carrier
- 26%Late-arriving aircraft
- 14%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 58%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,556 of the 4,422 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 4,422 delay minutes reported on DL 1048.
Cancellations are rare at 0.55%, below the national 1.89% 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.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
6.9% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 907 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
Every one of the 365 flights under DL 1048 in the data flew MSP to ATL. The number was not reused on any other city pair, which makes this a clean record of one route.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 365 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking DL 1048
For a booking, read DL 1048 as 78.2% on time with 0.55% cancelled over 365 flights. Those are rates from the past twelve months, not a forecast for any particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- MSP to ATL, every carrier and departure
- ATL to MSP, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 1052 on the same route90.6%
- Delta Air Lines 1062 on the same route92.0%
- Delta Air Lines 1046 on the same route84.3%
- Delta Air Lines 1039 on the same route90.6%
- Delta Air Lines 1026 on the same route77.1%
- Delta Air Lines 1028 on the same route79.2%
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on-time record
- Every Delta Air Lines flight number with a record
- The most and least reliable flight numbers in the US
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
A flight number here means Delta Air Lines’s own number as it reports to the DOT. How the figures are computed is on the methodology page.
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.