Flight number record
DL 2306
Delta Air Lines · Atlanta to Des Moines
- Route
- ATL → DSM
- Departs
- 21:15
- Flights
- 348
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 2306, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 2306 lands a B−, 5 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 a little over an hour on average. That rests on 348 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, DL 2306's record is 5 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 49 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
82.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 337 completed flights
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.16%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
8.0%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 348 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Schedule
When DL 2306 flies
DL 2306 flies ATL to DSM without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 21:15, used on 118 of 348 flights, with 21:20 (100 flights) and 21:25 (36 flights) next.
- Departs 21:15118 flights33.9%
- Departs 21:20100 flights28.7%
- Departs 21:2536 flights10.3%
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 2306 runs 12 points better at 82.2%. By that time of day most aircraft have flown several legs already, and whatever went wrong earlier is still in the schedule.
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Against the route
DL 2306 next to ATL to DSM
Every carrier on ATL to DSM combined arrived on time 84.7% of the time across 1,253 flights, so DL 2306 is 3 points behind it. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, close to this flight's figure.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 2306thin sample | 348 | 82.2% | 74 min | 3.16% | B− |
| All Delta Air Lines on ATL–DSM | 1,253 | 84.7% | 63 min | 2.39% | B |
| All carriers on ATL–DSM | 1,253 | 84.7% | 63 min | 2.39% | B |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 2306 quarter by quarter
DL 2306 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Oct–Dec 2025 at 92.1% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 69.5%, a swing of 23 points on roughly 70 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 202579 flights92.1%
- Jan–Mar 202686 flights83.3%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights79.5%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights69.5%
Scale runs 60% to 100%.
By weekday, DL 2306 did best on Wednesday at 92.0% on time and worst on Sunday at 69.6%. Each day rests on about 50 flights, so a gap of 22 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 2306 runs when it is late
DL 2306 often beats the schedule: 89 of 337 completed flights, 26%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 60 late arrivals split 19 under half an hour, 14 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 27 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early89 flights26.4%
- Within 15 min188 flights55.8%
- 15–29 min late19 flights5.6%
- 30–59 min late14 flights4.2%
- 1–2 hours late19 flights5.6%
- 2+ hours late8 flights2.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 337 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
8 of 60 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 13% of them. 8 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 2306
The latest arrival of the period was on 16 August 2026, 9 hours 36 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The five worst days are spread across August, May, March and February, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 16 August 2026 | 9 hours 36 minutes | Carrier |
| 22 May 2026 | 3 hours 38 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 11 August 2026 | 3 hours 18 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 6 March 2026 | 3 hours 17 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 19 February 2026 | 2 hours 47 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why DL 2306 runs late
Carrier accounts for 54% of the 4,464 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 54%Carrier
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 12%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 54%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,404 of the 4,464 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 4,464 delay minutes reported on DL 2306.
Cancellations run at 3.16%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
8.0% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 743 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 348 flights under DL 2306 in the data flew ATL to DSM. 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. 348 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 2306
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on DL 2306: 3.16% of its 348 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs a little over an hour, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- ATL to DSM, every carrier and departure
- DSM to ATL, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 1704 on the same route88.1%
- Delta Air Lines 2086 on the same route80.7%
- 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
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
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.