Flight number record
DL 2051
Delta Air Lines · Atlanta to Houston
- Route
- ATL → HOU
- Departs
- 21:15
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 2051, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 2051 sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 6 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about 55 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 3 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so DL 2051 runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 56 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
71.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 360 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.10%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
8.3%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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 2051 flies
DL 2051 flies ATL to HOU without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 21:15, used on 55 of 365 flights, with 21:54 (51 flights) and 21:20 (40 flights) next.
- Departs 21:1555 flights15.1%
- Departs 21:5451 flights14.0%
- Departs 21:2040 flights11.0%
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 21:15 departure sits in the 8pm–5am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 70.1%, and DL 2051 runs level with that at 71.7%. By that time of day most aircraft have flown several legs already, and whatever went wrong earlier is still in the schedule.
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 2051 next to ATL to HOU
Every carrier on ATL to HOU combined arrived on time 80.0% of the time across 2,847 flights, so DL 2051 is 8 points behind it. Delta flew 1,386 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 80.6% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight trails by 9 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 2051 | 365 | 71.7% | 54 min | 1.10% | C |
| All Delta Air Lines on ATL–HOU | 1,386 | 80.6% | 56 min | 2.09% | B |
| All carriers on ATL–HOU | 2,847 | 80.0% | 58 min | 1.44% | B |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 2051 quarter by quarter
DL 2051 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 86.7% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 54.1%, a swing of 33 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 flights86.7%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights69.6%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights81.4%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights71.4%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights54.1%
Scale runs 45% to 90%.
By weekday, DL 2051 did best on Wednesday at 78.8% on time and worst on Friday at 66.0%. Each day rests on about 52 flights, so a gap of 13 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 2051 runs when it is late
The 102 late arrivals split 34 under half an hour, 38 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 30 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early69 flights19.2%
- Within 15 min189 flights52.5%
- 15–29 min late34 flights9.4%
- 30–59 min late38 flights10.6%
- 1–2 hours late22 flights6.1%
- 2+ hours late8 flights2.2%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 360 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
14 of 105 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 13% of them. 11 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 2051
The latest arrival of the period was on 15 March 2026, 5 hours 22 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 15 March 2026 | 5 hours 22 minutes | Carrier |
| 12 June 2026 | 3 hours 12 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 21 May 2026 | 3 hours 3 minutes | Carrier |
| 11 July 2026 | 2 hours 40 minutes | Carrier |
| 14 January 2026 | 2 hours 34 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why DL 2051 runs late
Carrier accounts for 63% of the 5,511 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 63%Carrier
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 63%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 3,467 of the 5,511 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 5,511 delay minutes reported on DL 2051.
Cancellations sit at 1.10% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
8.3% 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 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 696 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 2051 in the data flew ATL to HOU. 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 2051
For a booking, DL 2051 is one of the weaker ways to fly ATL to HOU: 8 points below the route as a whole. If the schedule allows, compare it with the other departures listed on the route page before settling on this one.
Related
Where to go next
- ATL to HOU, every carrier and departure
- HOU to ATL, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 1509 on the same route89.5%
- Delta Air Lines 1195 on the same route83.7%
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- William P. Hobby (HOU) 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.