Flight number record
DL 2159
Delta Air Lines · San Francisco to Minneapolis
- Route
- SFO → MSP
- Departs
- 15:26
- Flights
- 323
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 2159, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 2159 sits in the middle of the pack with a C+. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 323 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so DL 2159 runs 5 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 46 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
72.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 322 completed flights
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.31%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
8.4%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 323 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Schedule
When DL 2159 flies
DL 2159 flies SFO to MSP without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 15:26, used on 52 of 323 flights, with 15:59 (36 flights) and 15:00 (35 flights) next.
- Departs 15:2652 flights16.1%
- Departs 15:5936 flights11.1%
- Departs 15:0035 flights10.8%
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 15:26 departure sits in the 2pm–5pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 71.9%, and DL 2159 runs level with that at 72.7%. 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 2159 next to SFO to MSP
Every carrier on SFO to MSP combined arrived on time 78.6% of the time across 1,927 flights, so DL 2159 is 6 points behind it. Delta flew 1,449 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 79.6% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight trails by 8 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 2159thin sample | 323 | 72.7% | 59 min | 0.31% | C+ |
| All Delta Air Lines on SFO–MSP | 1,449 | 79.6% | 60 min | 0.83% | B+ |
| All carriers on SFO–MSP | 1,927 | 78.6% | 61 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 2159 quarter by quarter
DL 2159 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 54.8%, a swing of 32 points on roughly 65 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 202578 flights78.2%
- Jan–Mar 202662 flights82.0%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights69.2%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights54.8%
Scale runs 45% to 90%.
By weekday, DL 2159 did best on Saturday at 95.3% on time and worst on Monday at 58.3%. Each day rests on about 46 flights, so a gap of 37 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 2159 runs when it is late
DL 2159 often beats the schedule: 99 of 322 completed flights, 31%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 88 late arrivals split 29 under half an hour, 32 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 27 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early99 flights30.7%
- Within 15 min135 flights41.9%
- 15–29 min late29 flights9.0%
- 30–59 min late32 flights9.9%
- 1–2 hours late20 flights6.2%
- 2+ hours late7 flights2.2%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 322 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 88 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 10 made it up before arrival. 10 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 2159
The latest arrival of the period was on 19 October 2025, 6 hours 15 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 19 October 2025 | 6 hours 15 minutes | Carrier |
| 27 August 2026 | 4 hours 14 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 20 April 2026 | 3 hours 46 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 14 June 2026 | 2 hours 47 minutes | Carrier |
| 21 August 2026 | 2 hours 23 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why DL 2159 runs late
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 61% of the 5,158 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 61%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 0%Extreme weather
61% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 5,158 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 61 to one. The split is drawn from 5,158 delay minutes reported on DL 2159.
Cancellations are rare at 0.31%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
8.4% 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 1,589 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.
The same number turns up on one other city pair in the data, including DTW to BUF (24), but none flew often enough under DL 2159 to report a rate for. Carriers move flight numbers between routes, so the figures on this page apply to SFO to MSP only.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 323 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 2159
For a booking, DL 2159 is one of the weaker ways to fly SFO to MSP: 6 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
- SFO to MSP, every carrier and departure
- MSP to SFO, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 2178 on the same route94.4%
- San Francisco International (SFO) delay statistics
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) 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
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.