Flight number record
DL 1961
Delta Air Lines · New York to San Juan
- Route
- JFK → SJU
- Departs
- 12:25
- Flights
- 364
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 1961, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 1961 lands a B, 6 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 364 flights, with a median arrival 12 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, DL 1961's record is 6 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 63 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
83.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 360 completed flights
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.10%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
6.4%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 364 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 1961 flies
DL 1961 flies JFK to SJU without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 12:25, used on 83 of 364 flights, with 12:29 (64 flights) and 12:00 (62 flights) next.
- Departs 12:2583 flights22.8%
- Departs 12:2964 flights17.6%
- Departs 12:0062 flights17.0%
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 12:25 departure sits in the 11am–2pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 78.3%, and DL 1961 runs 5 points better at 83.6%. 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 1961 next to JFK to SJU
Every carrier on JFK to SJU combined arrived on time 70.2% of the time across 3,554 flights, so DL 1961 is 13 points ahead of it. Delta flew 1,104 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 77.4% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight beats by 3 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 1961thin sample | 364 | 83.6% | 67 min | 1.10% | B |
| All Delta Air Lines on JFK–SJU | 1,104 | 77.4% | 61 min | 2.26% | B |
| All carriers on JFK–SJU | 3,554 | 70.2% | 78 min | 3.57% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 1961 quarter by quarter
DL 1961 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 93.4% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 72.6%, a swing of 21 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 202591 flights83.5%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights79.1%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights93.4%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights72.6%
Scale runs 65% to 100%.
By weekday, DL 1961 did best on Monday at 88.5% on time and worst on Saturday at 76.5%. Each day rests on about 52 flights, so a gap of 12 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 1961 runs when it is late
DL 1961 often beats the schedule: 147 of 360 completed flights, 41%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 59 late arrivals split 17 under half an hour, 19 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 23 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early147 flights40.8%
- Within 15 min154 flights42.8%
- 15–29 min late17 flights4.7%
- 30–59 min late19 flights5.3%
- 1–2 hours late16 flights4.4%
- 2+ hours late7 flights1.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 360 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
17 of 61 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 28% of them. 15 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 1961
The latest arrival of the period was on 31 January 2026, 8 hours 57 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 31 January 2026 | 8 hours 57 minutes | Carrier |
| 14 December 2025 | 4 hours 44 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 20 March 2026 | 3 hours 18 minutes | Carrier |
| 27 December 2025 | 2 hours 22 minutes | Carrier |
| 29 August 2026 | 2 hours 16 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why DL 1961 runs late
Carrier accounts for 46% of the 3,928 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Carrier
- 26%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%National Airspace System
- 3%Security
- 2%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 46%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 1,816 of the 3,928 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 3,928 delay minutes reported on DL 1961.
Cancellations sit at 1.10% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
6.4% 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.
At 1,598 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
DL 1961 is not only a JFK to SJU flight. It also flew SJU to JFK (267 flights, 87.7% on time) often enough to be scored on its own. Airlines attach one number to several legs of an aircraft's day, and each leg keeps its own record here, so check which city pair is on your booking before reading a rate.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 364 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.
| Also flown as | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SJU to JFKthin sample | 267 | 87.7% | 57 min | 1.87% | A |
What to do with this
Booking DL 1961
For a booking, read DL 1961 as 83.6% on time with 1.10% cancelled over 364 flights. Those are rates from the past twelve months, not a forecast for any particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- JFK to SJU, every carrier and departure
- SJU to JFK, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 1859 on the same route67.4%
- JetBlue Airways 503 on the same route72.1%
- Delta Air Lines 1966 on the same route80.5%
- JetBlue Airways 803 on the same route62.2%
- JetBlue Airways 1603 on the same route75.6%
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Luis Munoz Marin International (SJU) 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.