Flight number record
DL 2688
Delta Air Lines · Minneapolis to Philadelphia
- Route
- MSP → PHL
- Departs
- 06:55
- Flights
- 293
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 2688, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 2688 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 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs roughly 50 minutes. That rests on 293 flights, with a median arrival 14 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, DL 2688's record is 13 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 129 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
90.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 283 completed flights
Avg delay
51 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.07%
National rate is 1.81%
1 hour+ late
2.5%
National rate is 8.1%
These figures cover 293 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 14 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 2688 flies
DL 2688 flies MSP to PHL without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 06:55, used on 68 of 293 flights, with 07:10 (49 flights) and 07:00 (38 flights) next. Carriers retime flights through the season, so the rates here blend slightly different positions in the aircraft's day.
- Departs 06:5568 flights23.2%
- Departs 07:1049 flights16.7%
- Departs 07:0038 flights13.0%
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 06:55 departure sits in the 5am–8am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 89.3%, and DL 2688 runs level with that at 90.5%. Early departures usually start with an aircraft that has not flown yet that day, which is most of why the window does well.
Against the route
DL 2688 next to MSP to PHL
Every carrier on MSP to PHL combined arrived on time 79.9% of the time across 2,022 flights, so DL 2688 is 11 points ahead of it. Delta flew 1,211 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 81.9% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.6%, which this flight beats by 9 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 2688thin sample | 293 | 90.5% | 51 min | 3.07% | A− |
| All Delta Air Lines on MSP–PHL | 1,211 | 81.9% | 74 min | 2.23% | B |
| All carriers on MSP–PHL | 2,022 | 79.9% | 97 min | 3.26% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,038,570 | 81.6% | 71 min | 1.62% | B |
Across the year
DL 2688 quarter by quarter
DL 2688 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 96.3% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 83.6%, a swing of 13 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 202560 flights91.7%
- Oct–Dec 202578 flights83.6%
- Jan–Mar 202672 flights89.9%
- Apr–Jun 202683 flights96.3%
Scale runs 75% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, DL 2688 did best on Wednesday at 97.6% on time and worst on Monday at 84.1%. Each day rests on about 42 flights, so a gap of 14 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Delay causes
Why DL 2688 runs late
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 66% of the 1,389 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.
- 66%Carrier
- 23%National Airspace System
- 10%Late-arriving aircraft
The largest share of delay minutes, 66%, 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 923 of the 1,389 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 1,389 delay minutes reported on DL 2688.
Cancellations run at 3.07%, 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
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 2.5% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% 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 981 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.
DL 2688 is not only a MSP to PHL flight. It also flew PHL to MSP (293 flights, 88.4% on time) often enough to be scored on its own. Airlines attach one number to several legs of an aircraft's day, and each leg keeps its own record here, so check which city pair is on your booking before reading a rate.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 293 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.
| Also flown as | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHL to MSPthin sample | 293 | 88.4% | 95 min | 2.73% | A |
What to do with this
Booking DL 2688
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on DL 2688: 3.07% of its 293 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs roughly 50 minutes, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- MSP to PHL, every carrier and departure
- PHL to MSP, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 2703 on the same route75.6%
- Delta Air Lines 2594 on the same route76.0%
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.