Flight number record
DL 2538
Delta Air Lines · Raleigh to Minneapolis
- Route
- RDU → MSP
- Departs
- 06:00
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 2538, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 2538 earns an A. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 13 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs an hour and a half. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, DL 2538's record is 13 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 127 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
90.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 359 completed flights
Avg delay
95 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.37%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
4.7%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 10 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.
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Schedule
When DL 2538 flies
DL 2538 is scheduled to leave Raleigh (RDU) at 06:00 local time and reach Minneapolis (MSP) at 07:46. That slot held for 365 of the 365 scheduled departures in the data, so the figures below describe one steady operation rather than a number that moved around the clock.
- Departs 06:00365 flights100.0%
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 06:00 departure sits in the 5am–8am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 89.3%, and DL 2538 runs level with that at 90.0%. Early departures usually start with an aircraft that has not flown yet that day, which is most of why the window does well.
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Against the route
DL 2538 next to RDU to MSP
Every carrier on RDU to MSP combined arrived on time 83.4% of the time across 1,231 flights, so DL 2538 is 7 points ahead of it. Delta flew 1,228 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 83.4% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight beats by 9 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 2538 | 365 | 90.0% | 95 min | 1.37% | A |
| All Delta Air Lines on RDU–MSP | 1,228 | 83.4% | 86 min | 1.22% | B |
| All carriers on RDU–MSP | 1,231 | 83.4% | 86 min | 1.30% | B |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 2538 quarter by quarter
DL 2538 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 96.7% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 84.6%, a swing of 12 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 flights96.7%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights84.6%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights88.4%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights95.6%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights88.7%
Scale runs 75% to 100%.
By weekday, DL 2538 ranged from 84.6% on Monday to 94.1% on Saturday. With about 52 flights behind each day, a spread of 10 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 2538 runs when it is late
DL 2538 often beats the schedule: 125 of 359 completed flights, 35%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 36 late arrivals split 15 under half an hour, 4 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 17 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early125 flights34.8%
- Within 15 min198 flights55.2%
- 15–29 min late15 flights4.2%
- 30–59 min late4 flights1.1%
- 1–2 hours late10 flights2.8%
- 2+ hours late7 flights1.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 359 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 27 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 1 made it up before arrival. 10 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 2538
The latest arrival of the period was on 23 September 2025, 7 hours 16 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 23 September 2025 | 7 hours 16 minutes | Carrier |
| 17 February 2026 | 7 hours | Carrier |
| 13 December 2025 | 6 hours 30 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 8 January 2026 | 4 hours 45 minutes | Carrier |
| 8 December 2025 | 4 hours 17 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why DL 2538 runs late
Carrier accounts for 82% of the 3,436 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 82%Carrier
- 11%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 82%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,812 of the 3,436 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 3,436 delay minutes reported on DL 2538.
Cancellations sit at 1.37% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.7% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
The 980 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 2538 in the data flew RDU to MSP. 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 2538
For a booking, DL 2538 has one of the better records a US domestic flight can show: 90.0% on time and 1.37% cancelled. That is a base rate, not a promise about any single day.
Related
Where to go next
- RDU to MSP, every carrier and departure
- MSP to RDU, the return direction
- Raleigh-Durham International (RDU) 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
- 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.