Flight number record

DL 738

Delta Air Lines · New York to Los Angeles

Route: JFK → LAX
Departs: 15:40
Flights: 365
Period: July 2025 to June 2026

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 738, check with Delta Air Lines.

DL 738 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 a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.

On time

74.6%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 358 completed flights

Avg delay

82 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.92%

National rate is 1.81%

1 hour+ late

8.1%

National rate is 8.1%

These figures cover 365 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.

Schedule

When DL 738 flies

DL 738 flies JFK to LAX without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 15:40, used on 139 of 365 flights, with 15:25 (75 flights) and 15:10 (45 flights) next. Carriers retime flights through the season, so the rates here blend slightly different positions in the aircraft's day.

Departs 15:40139 flights38.1%
Departs 15:2575 flights20.5%
Departs 15:1045 flights12.3%

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 15:40 departure sits in the 2pm–5pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 72.4%, and DL 738 runs 2 points better at 74.6%. Midday slots inherit some of the morning's delays without yet carrying the full weight of the evening's.

Against the route

DL 738 next to JFK to LAX

Every carrier on JFK to LAX combined arrived on time 77.6% of the time across 10,284 flights, so DL 738 is 3 points behind it. Delta flew 3,358 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 77.5% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.6%, which this flight trails by 7 points.

DL 738 against its route and carrier
Compared with	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
DL 738	365	74.6%	82 min	1.92%	C
All Delta Air Lines on JFK–LAX	3,358	77.5%	71 min	1.79%	B
All carriers on JFK–LAX	10,284	77.6%	77 min	1.94%	B
Delta Air Lines, whole network	1,038,570	81.6%	71 min	1.62%	B

Across the year

DL 738 quarter by quarter

DL 738 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jan–Mar 2026 at 81.4% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 67.4%, 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 flights72.2%
Oct–Dec 202592 flights67.4%
Jan–Mar 202690 flights81.4%
Apr–Jun 202691 flights77.8%

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

By weekday, DL 738 did best on Monday at 86.0% on time and worst on Sunday at 62.7%. Each day rests on about 52 flights, so a gap of 23 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.

Delay causes

Why DL 738 runs late

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 62% of the 7,412 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
62%
National Airspace System
27%
Late-arriving aircraft
10%
Extreme weather
1%

The largest share of delay minutes, 62%, 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 4,574 of the 7,412 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 7,412 delay minutes reported on DL 738.

Cancellations sit at 1.92% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.

Connections and routes

What a delay on this flight costs

8.1% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

At 2,475 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.

Every one of the 365 flights under DL 738 in the data flew JFK to LAX. 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 738

For a booking, read DL 738 as 74.6% on time with 1.92% 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