Flight number record
DL 1078
Delta Air Lines · New York to Detroit
- Route
- LGA → DTW
- Departs
- 09:30
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 1078, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 1078 earns an A−. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 11 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about 55 minutes. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 12 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, DL 1078's record is 11 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 108 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
88.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 354 completed flights
Avg delay
55 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.01%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
3.7%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 12 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 1078 flies
DL 1078 flies LGA to DTW without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 09:30, used on 89 of 365 flights, with 09:00 (81 flights) and 09:25 (56 flights) next.
- Departs 09:3089 flights24.4%
- Departs 09:0081 flights22.2%
- Departs 09:2556 flights15.3%
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 09:30 departure sits in the 8am–11am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 83.9%, and DL 1078 runs 4 points better at 88.1%. Early departures usually start with an aircraft that has not flown yet that day, which is most of why the window does well.
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Against the route
DL 1078 next to LGA to DTW
Every carrier on LGA to DTW combined arrived on time 77.3% of the time across 3,861 flights, so DL 1078 is 11 points ahead of it. Delta flew 1,982 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 81.0% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight beats by 7 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 1078 | 365 | 88.1% | 55 min | 3.01% | A− |
| All Delta Air Lines on LGA–DTW | 1,982 | 81.0% | 87 min | 4.09% | B− |
| All carriers on LGA–DTW | 3,861 | 77.3% | 83 min | 5.23% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 1078 quarter by quarter
DL 1078 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jan–Mar 2026 at 94.0% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 78.3%, a swing of 16 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 flights90.0%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights90.0%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights94.0%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights86.7%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights78.3%
Scale runs 70% to 100%.
By weekday, DL 1078 did best on Wednesday at 98.0% on time and worst on Sunday at 81.6%. Each day rests on about 52 flights, so a gap of 16 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 1078 runs when it is late
DL 1078 often beats the schedule: 146 of 354 completed flights, 41%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 42 late arrivals split 14 under half an hour, 15 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 13 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early146 flights41.2%
- Within 15 min166 flights46.9%
- 15–29 min late14 flights4.0%
- 30–59 min late15 flights4.2%
- 1–2 hours late9 flights2.5%
- 2+ hours late4 flights1.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 354 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
10 of 35 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 29% of them. 17 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 1078
The latest arrival of the period was on 19 July 2026, 2 hours 54 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). Three of the five worst days fell in July 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 19 July 2026 | 2 hours 54 minutes | Carrier |
| 27 April 2026 | 2 hours 25 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 21 July 2026 | 2 hours 23 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 8 August 2026 | 2 hours 17 minutes | Carrier |
| 4 July 2026 | 1 hour 59 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why DL 1078 runs late
Carrier accounts for 43% of the 2,297 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Carrier
- 33%National Airspace System
- 24%Late-arriving aircraft
33% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 759 minutes out of 2,297, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 2,297 delay minutes reported on DL 1078.
Cancellations run at 3.01%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 30 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.7% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% 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.
The 502 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 1078 in the data flew LGA to DTW. 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 1078
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on DL 1078: 3.01% of its 365 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs about 55 minutes, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- LGA to DTW, every carrier and departure
- DTW to LGA, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 1231 on the same route95.6%
- Delta Air Lines 1122 on the same route79.8%
- Delta Air Lines 999 on the same route73.9%
- Republic Airways 4598 on the same route63.6%
- Delta Air Lines 1014 on the same route69.3%
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) 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
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
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.