Flight number record
DL 550
Delta Air Lines · New York to Atlanta
- Route
- LGA → ATL
- Departs
- 06:00
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 550, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 550 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 12 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 8 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, DL 550's record is 12 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 122 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
89.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 352 completed flights
Avg delay
62 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.56%
National rate is 1.81%
1 hour+ late
2.6%
National rate is 8.1%
These figures cover 365 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 8 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 550 flies
DL 550 is scheduled to leave New York (LGA) at 06:00 local time and reach Atlanta (ATL) at 08:14. 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%. 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 06:00 departure sits in the 5am–8am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 89.3%, and DL 550 runs level with that at 89.8%. 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 550 next to LGA to ATL
Every carrier on LGA to ATL combined arrived on time 76.6% of the time across 8,343 flights, so DL 550 is 13 points ahead of it. Delta flew 4,933 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 79.9% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.6%, which this flight beats by 8 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 550 | 365 | 89.8% | 62 min | 3.56% | A− |
| All Delta Air Lines on LGA–ATL | 4,933 | 79.9% | 73 min | 2.98% | B |
| All carriers on LGA–ATL | 8,343 | 76.6% | 78 min | 3.67% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,038,570 | 81.6% | 71 min | 1.62% | B |
Across the year
DL 550 quarter by quarter
DL 550 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 95.6% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 84.9%, a swing of 11 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 flights95.6%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights84.9%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights85.9%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights92.2%
Scale runs 75% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, DL 550 did best on Friday at 96.1% on time and worst on Sunday at 82.0%. Each day rests on about 52 flights, so a gap of 14 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Delay causes
Why DL 550 runs late
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 67% of the 2,231 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.
- 67%Carrier
- 29%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 67%, 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 1,503 of the 2,231 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 2,231 delay minutes reported on DL 550.
Cancellations run at 3.56%, against 1.81% 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
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 2.6% 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 762 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.
Every one of the 365 flights under DL 550 in the data flew LGA to ATL. 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 550
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on DL 550: 3.56% of its 365 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs about an hour, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- LGA to ATL, every carrier and departure
- ATL to LGA, the return direction
- Frontier Airlines 3287 on the same route62.7%
- Delta Air Lines 992 on the same route86.8%
- Delta Air Lines 968 on the same route74.3%
- Delta Air Lines 342 on the same route93.1%
- Delta Air Lines 993 on the same route84.0%
- Delta Air Lines 974 on the same route79.6%
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.