Flight number record
DL 1487
Delta Air Lines · Detroit to New York
- Route
- DTW → LGA
- Departs
- 07:00
- Flights
- 360
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 1487, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 1487 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 an hour. That rests on 360 flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, DL 1487's record is 11 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 106 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
87.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 347 completed flights
Avg delay
56 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.33%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
3.5%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 360 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 11 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 1487 flies
DL 1487 is scheduled to leave Detroit (DTW) at 07:00 local time and reach New York (LGA) at 08:47. That slot held for 354 of the 360 scheduled departures in the data, so the figures below describe one steady operation rather than a number that moved around the clock.
- Departs 07:00354 flights98.3%
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 07:00 departure sits in the 5am–8am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 89.3%, and DL 1487 runs level with that at 87.9%. 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 1487 next to DTW to LGA
Every carrier on DTW to LGA combined arrived on time 74.7% of the time across 3,862 flights, so DL 1487 is 13 points ahead of it. Delta flew 1,981 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 76.4% 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 1487thin sample | 360 | 87.9% | 56 min | 3.33% | A− |
| All Delta Air Lines on DTW–LGA | 1,981 | 76.4% | 74 min | 4.04% | B− |
| All carriers on DTW–LGA | 3,862 | 74.7% | 76 min | 5.44% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 1487 quarter by quarter
DL 1487 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 92.2% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 79.7%, a swing of 13 points on roughly 90 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 202526 flights—
- Oct–Dec 202591 flights87.4%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights85.9%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights92.2%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights79.7%
Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, DL 1487 ranged from 81.2% on Sunday to 91.7% on Monday. With about 51 flights behind each day, a spread of 11 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 1487 runs when it is late
DL 1487 often beats the schedule: 128 of 347 completed flights, 37%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 42 late arrivals split 15 under half an hour, 15 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 12 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early128 flights36.9%
- Within 15 min177 flights51.0%
- 15–29 min late15 flights4.3%
- 30–59 min late15 flights4.3%
- 1–2 hours late8 flights2.3%
- 2+ hours late4 flights1.2%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 347 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
7 of 33 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 21% of them. 16 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 1487
The latest arrival of the period was on 21 July 2026, 4 hours 26 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as national airspace system delay. The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 21 July 2026 | 4 hours 26 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 27 August 2026 | 3 hours 33 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 5 December 2025 | 2 hours 53 minutes | Carrier |
| 9 July 2026 | 2 hours 43 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 27 May 2026 | 1 hour 57 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why DL 1487 runs late
National Airspace System accounts for 49% of the 2,332 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%National Airspace System
- 46%Carrier
- 4%Late-arriving aircraft
- 1%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 46%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 1,066 of the 2,332 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 2,332 delay minutes reported on DL 1487.
Cancellations run at 3.33%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about 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 3.5% 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 360 flights under DL 1487 in the data flew DTW to LGA. 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. 360 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 1487
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on DL 1487: 3.33% of its 360 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs about an hour, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- DTW to LGA, every carrier and departure
- LGA to DTW, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 2589 on the same route85.3%
- Delta Air Lines 2602 on the same route74.9%
- Delta Air Lines 2603 on the same route72.4%
- Republic Airways 4477 on the same route85.3%
- Delta Air Lines 2604 on the same route58.7%
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- LaGuardia (LGA) 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.