Flight number record

DL 361

Delta Air Lines · Detroit to San Francisco

Route: DTW → SFO
Departs: 08:30
Flights: 365
Period: July 2025 to June 2026

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 361, check with Delta Air Lines.

DL 361 sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about 45 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 1 minute early.

The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so DL 361 runs 5 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 45 extra late arrivals.

On time

73.1%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 361 completed flights

Avg delay

45 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.10%

National rate is 1.81%

1 hour+ late

6.4%

National rate is 8.1%

These figures cover 365 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. On-time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the same threshold the Department of Transportation uses in its own reports. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and counted separately, which is why the cancellation column matters on its own.

Schedule

When DL 361 flies

DL 361 flies DTW to SFO without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 08:30, used on 148 of 365 flights, with 08:25 (108 flights) and 08:40 (44 flights) next. Carriers retime flights through the season, so the rates here blend slightly different positions in the aircraft's day.

Departs 08:30148 flights40.5%
Departs 08:25108 flights29.6%
Departs 08:4044 flights12.1%

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 08:30 departure sits in the 8am–11am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 84.1%, and DL 361 runs 11 points worse at 73.1%. 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 361 next to DTW to SFO

Every carrier on DTW to SFO combined arrived on time 67.7% of the time across 1,799 flights, so DL 361 is 5 points ahead of it. Delta flew 1,388 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 66.5% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.6%, which this flight trails by 9 points.

DL 361 against its route and carrier
Compared with	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
DL 361	365	73.1%	45 min	1.10%	C
All Delta Air Lines on DTW–SFO	1,388	66.5%	63 min	0.79%	C+
All carriers on DTW–SFO	1,799	67.7%	66 min	0.89%	C+
Delta Air Lines, whole network	1,038,570	81.6%	71 min	1.62%	B

Across the year

DL 361 quarter by quarter

DL 361 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 80.2% on time and its weakest Apr–Jun 2026 at 65.9%, a swing of 14 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 202592 flights72.5%
Jan–Mar 202690 flights73.9%
Apr–Jun 202691 flights65.9%

Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

By weekday, DL 361 did best on Friday at 82.7% on time and worst on Sunday at 58.0%. 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 361 runs late

One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 42% of the 4,367 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.

National Airspace System
42%
Carrier
40%
Late-arriving aircraft
17%
Security
1%
Extreme weather
0%

The largest share of delay minutes, 40%, 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 1,745 of the 4,367 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 4,367 delay minutes reported on DL 361.

Cancellations sit at 1.10% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.

Connections and routes

What a delay on this flight costs

6.4% 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 45 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.

At 2,079 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.

DL 361 is not only a DTW to SFO flight. It also flew SFO to DTW (290 flights, 76.6% 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. 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.

Other routes flown as DL 361
Also flown as	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SFO to DTWthin sample	290	76.6%	56 min	1.03%	B

What to do with this

Booking DL 361

For a booking, read DL 361 as 73.1% on time with 1.10% cancelled over 365 flights. Those are rates from the past twelve months, not a forecast for any particular day.

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