Flight number record
DL 1688
Delta Air Lines · Albuquerque to Atlanta
- Route
- ABQ → ATL
- Departs
- 07:00
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 1688, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 1688 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 15 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs close to two hours. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 14 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, DL 1688's record is 15 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 146 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
91.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 359 completed flights
Avg delay
103 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.37%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
3.1%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 14 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.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Schedule
When DL 1688 flies
DL 1688 flies ABQ to ATL without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 07:00, used on 230 of 365 flights, with 07:05 (97 flights) next.
- Departs 07:00230 flights63.0%
- Departs 07:0597 flights26.6%
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 1688 runs 3 points better at 91.9%. Early departures usually start with an aircraft that has not flown yet that day, which is most of why the window does well.
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Against the route
DL 1688 next to ABQ to ATL
Every carrier on ABQ to ATL combined arrived on time 88.9% of the time across 1,002 flights, so DL 1688 is 3 points ahead of it. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight beats by 11 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 1688 | 365 | 91.9% | 103 min | 1.37% | A |
| All Delta Air Lines on ABQ–ATL | 1,002 | 88.9% | 105 min | 1.60% | A |
| All carriers on ABQ–ATL | 1,002 | 88.9% | 105 min | 1.60% | A |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 1688 quarter by quarter
DL 1688 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 100.0% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 87.5%, a swing of 13 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 flights100.0%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights89.9%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights87.5%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights97.8%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights88.5%
Scale runs 80% to 100%.
By weekday, DL 1688 did best on Friday at 98.1% on time and worst on Wednesday at 84.6%. Each day rests on about 52 flights, so a gap of 14 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 1688 runs when it is late
DL 1688 often beats the schedule: 179 of 359 completed flights, 50%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 29 late arrivals split 6 under half an hour, 12 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 11 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early179 flights49.9%
- Within 15 min151 flights42.1%
- 15–29 min late6 flights1.7%
- 30–59 min late12 flights3.3%
- 1–2 hours late5 flights1.4%
- 2+ hours late6 flights1.7%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 359 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
5 of 28 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 18% of them. Only 6 left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 1688
The latest arrival of the period was on 1 July 2026, 12 hours 46 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on five of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 1 July 2026 | 12 hours 46 minutes | Carrier |
| 22 February 2026 | 6 hours 9 minutes | Carrier |
| 23 May 2026 | 4 hours 55 minutes | Carrier |
| 22 March 2026 | 3 hours 58 minutes | Carrier |
| 10 July 2026 | 3 hours 53 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why DL 1688 runs late
Carrier accounts for 91% of the 3,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 91%Carrier
- 9%National Airspace System
The largest share of delay minutes, 91%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,718 of the 3,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 3,000 delay minutes reported on DL 1688.
Cancellations sit at 1.37% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.1% 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 1,269 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 1688 in the data flew ABQ 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 1688
For a booking, DL 1688 has one of the better records a US domestic flight can show: 91.9% on time and 1.37% cancelled. That is a base rate, not a promise about any single day.
Related
Where to go next
- ABQ to ATL, every carrier and departure
- ATL to ABQ, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 1004 on the same route88.4%
- Delta Air Lines 1109 on the same route86.0%
- Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) 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.