Flight number record
DL 2188
Delta Air Lines · Detroit to Atlanta
- Route
- DTW → ATL
- Departs
- 12:43
- Flights
- 303
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 2188, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 2188 sits in the middle of the pack with a C+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 303 flights, with a median arrival 1 minute late.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so DL 2188 runs 4 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 40 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
73.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 303 completed flights
Avg delay
62 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.00%
National rate is 1.81%
1 hour+ late
8.9%
National rate is 8.1%
These figures cover 303 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.9% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Schedule
When DL 2188 flies
DL 2188 flies DTW to ATL without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 12:43, used on 35 of 303 flights, with 12:33 (35 flights) and 12:38 (33 flights) next. Carriers retime flights through the season, so the rates here blend slightly different positions in the aircraft's day.
- Departs 12:4335 flights11.6%
- Departs 12:3335 flights11.6%
- Departs 12:3833 flights10.9%
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 12:43 departure sits in the 11am–2pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 78.8%, and DL 2188 runs 5 points worse at 73.6%. Midday slots inherit some of the morning's delays without yet carrying the full weight of the evening's.
Against the route
DL 2188 next to DTW to ATL
Every carrier on DTW to ATL combined arrived on time 79.0% of the time across 4,881 flights, so DL 2188 is 5 points behind it. Delta flew 3,703 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 81.6% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.6%, which this flight trails by 8 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 2188thin sample | 303 | 73.6% | 62 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| All Delta Air Lines on DTW–ATL | 3,703 | 81.6% | 68 min | 0.49% | B+ |
| All carriers on DTW–ATL | 4,881 | 79.0% | 75 min | 0.80% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,038,570 | 81.6% | 71 min | 1.62% | B |
Across the year
DL 2188 quarter by quarter
DL 2188 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 79.1% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2025 at 68.5%, a swing of 11 points on roughly 101 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 202592 flights68.5%
- Oct–Dec 202591 flights73.6%
- Jan–Mar 202629 flights—
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights79.1%
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, DL 2188 did best on Thursday at 90.7% on time and worst on Tuesday at 54.5%. Each day rests on about 43 flights, so a gap of 36 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Delay causes
Why DL 2188 runs late
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 64% of the 4,948 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.
- 64%Carrier
- 23%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 64%, 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 3,150 of the 4,948 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 4,948 delay minutes reported on DL 2188.
Cancellations are rare at 0.00%, below the national 1.81% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Almost no flights are called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
8.9% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 594 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.
The same number turns up on one other city pair in the data, including ATL to CMH (19), but none flew often enough under DL 2188 to report a rate for. Carriers move flight numbers between routes, so the figures on this page apply to DTW to ATL only.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 303 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 2188
For a booking, DL 2188 is one of the weaker ways to fly DTW to ATL: 5 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
- DTW to ATL, every carrier and departure
- ATL to DTW, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 2856 on the same route86.3%
- Delta Air Lines 1611 on the same route86.9%
- Delta Air Lines 1467 on the same route76.3%
- Delta Air Lines 2375 on the same route90.3%
- Delta Air Lines 2053 on the same route73.9%
- Delta Air Lines 1228 on the same route81.0%
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) 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
- Connecting flights: how much buffer the data says you need
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.