Flight number record

DL 2501

Delta Air Lines · Atlanta to Memphis

Route: ATL → MEM
Departs: 23:00
Flights: 362
Period: July 2025 to June 2026

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 2501, check with Delta Air Lines.

DL 2501 sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. 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 about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 362 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.

On time

74.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 351 completed flights

Avg delay

67 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

3.04%

National rate is 1.81%

1 hour+ late

7.7%

National rate is 8.1%

These figures cover 362 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 7 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.

Schedule

When DL 2501 flies

DL 2501 flies ATL to MEM without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 23:00, used on 122 of 362 flights, with 22:45 (69 flights) next. Carriers retime flights through the season, so the rates here blend slightly different positions in the aircraft's day.

Departs 23:00122 flights33.7%
Departs 22:4569 flights19.1%

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 23:00 departure sits in the 8pm–5am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 70.5%, and DL 2501 runs 4 points better at 74.9%. By that time of day most aircraft have flown several legs already, and whatever went wrong earlier is still in the schedule.

Against the route

DL 2501 next to ATL to MEM

Every carrier on ATL to MEM combined arrived on time 82.3% of the time across 3,388 flights, so DL 2501 is 7 points behind it. Delta flew 3,304 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 82.6% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.6%, which this flight trails by 7 points.

DL 2501 against its route and carrier
Compared with	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
DL 2501thin sample	362	74.9%	67 min	3.04%	C−
All Delta Air Lines on ATL–MEM	3,304	82.6%	61 min	1.85%	B
All carriers on ATL–MEM	3,388	82.3%	62 min	1.86%	B
Delta Air Lines, whole network	1,038,570	81.6%	71 min	1.62%	B

Across the year

DL 2501 quarter by quarter

DL 2501 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 80.2% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 67.1%, a swing of 13 points on roughly 91 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 flights80.2%
Oct–Dec 202590 flights77.3%
Jan–Mar 202689 flights67.1%
Apr–Jun 202691 flights74.7%

Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

By weekday, DL 2501 did best on Saturday at 87.5% on time and worst on Monday at 62.7%. Each day rests on about 52 flights, so a gap of 25 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.

Delay causes

Why DL 2501 runs late

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 56% of the 5,875 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.

Carrier
56%
National Airspace System
24%
Late-arriving aircraft
14%
Extreme weather
6%

The largest share of delay minutes, 56%, 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 3,286 of the 5,875 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 5,875 delay minutes reported on DL 2501.

Cancellations run at 3.04%, against 1.81% nationally. That is roughly 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

7.7% 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.

Every one of the 362 flights under DL 2501 in the data flew ATL to MEM. 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. 362 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 2501

For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on DL 2501: 3.04% of its 362 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs about an hour, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.

Where to go next

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.

Key figures