Flight number record
DL 2050
Delta Air Lines · Atlanta to Buffalo
- Route
- ATL → BUF
- Departs
- 16:42
- Flights
- 270
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 2050, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 2050 sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land roughly 50 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 270 flights, with a median arrival right on schedule.
Key figures
On time
75.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 264 completed flights
Avg delay
52 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.22%
National rate is 1.81%
1 hour+ late
6.8%
National rate is 8.1%
These figures cover 270 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. On-time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the same threshold the Department of Transportation uses in its own reports. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and counted separately, which is why the cancellation column matters on its own.
Schedule
When DL 2050 flies
DL 2050 flies ATL to BUF without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 16:42, used on 38 of 270 flights, with 16:33 (30 flights) next. Carriers retime flights through the season, so the rates here blend slightly different positions in the aircraft's day.
- Departs 16:4238 flights14.1%
- Departs 16:3330 flights11.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Share of scheduled departures at each local time. Times used on fewer than one flight in ten are not listed.
A 16:42 departure sits in the 2pm–5pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 72.4%, and DL 2050 runs 3 points better at 75.0%. Midday slots inherit some of the morning's delays without yet carrying the full weight of the evening's.
Against the route
DL 2050 next to ATL to BUF
Every carrier on ATL to BUF combined arrived on time 79.0% of the time across 1,508 flights, so DL 2050 is 4 points behind it. Delta flew 1,250 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 81.2% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.6%, which this flight trails by 7 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 2050thin sample | 270 | 75.0% | 52 min | 2.22% | B |
| All Delta Air Lines on ATL–BUF | 1,250 | 81.2% | 51 min | 1.84% | B |
| All carriers on ATL–BUF | 1,508 | 79.0% | 58 min | 1.92% | B |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,038,570 | 81.6% | 71 min | 1.62% | B |
Across the year
DL 2050 quarter by quarter
DL 2050 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jan–Mar 2026 at 80.3% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2025 at 66.7%, a swing of 14 points on roughly 68 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 202560 flights66.7%
- Oct–Dec 202567 flights78.1%
- Jan–Mar 202669 flights80.3%
- Apr–Jun 202674 flights74.3%
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, DL 2050 ranged from 70.5% on Monday to 81.0% on Wednesday. With about 39 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.
Delay causes
Why DL 2050 runs late
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 43% of the 3,450 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 43%Carrier
- 26%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 1,489 of the 3,450 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 3,450 delay minutes reported on DL 2050.
Cancellations sit at 2.22% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
6.8% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last roughly 50 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 712 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
DL 2050 is not only a ATL to BUF flight. It also flew BUF to ATL (262 flights, 81.6% 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. 270 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BUF to ATLthin sample | 262 | 81.6% | 87 min | 2.67% | B |
What to do with this
Booking DL 2050
For a booking, read DL 2050 as 75.0% on time with 2.22% cancelled over 270 flights. Those are rates from the past twelve months, not a forecast for any particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- ATL to BUF, every carrier and departure
- BUF to ATL, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 2334 on the same route77.9%
- Delta Air Lines 1384 on the same route90.4%
- 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
- How to read this site: grades, sample sizes, and honest caveats
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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.