Flight number record
DL 738
Delta Air Lines · New York to Los Angeles
- Route
- JFK → LAX
- Departs
- 15:40
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 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. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so DL 738 runs 5 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 46 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
72.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 355 completed flights
Avg delay
81 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.74%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
7.9%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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 738 flies
DL 738 flies JFK to LAX without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 15:40, used on 117 of 365 flights, with 15:25 (75 flights) and 15:10 (39 flights) next.
- Departs 15:40117 flights32.1%
- Departs 15:2575 flights20.5%
- Departs 15:1039 flights10.7%
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 15:40 departure sits in the 2pm–5pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 71.9%, and DL 738 runs level with that at 72.7%. Midday slots inherit some of the morning's delays without yet carrying the full weight of the evening's.
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Against the route
DL 738 next to JFK to LAX
Every carrier on JFK to LAX combined arrived on time 75.4% of the time across 10,285 flights, so DL 738 is 3 points behind it. Delta flew 3,366 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 75.3% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight trails by 8 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 738 | 365 | 72.7% | 81 min | 2.74% | C |
| All Delta Air Lines on JFK–LAX | 3,366 | 75.3% | 67 min | 2.55% | B |
| All carriers on JFK–LAX | 10,285 | 75.4% | 78 min | 2.78% | B |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | 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 Jul–Sep 2026 at 60.3%, a swing of 21 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 202530 flights—
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights67.4%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights81.4%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights77.8%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights60.3%
Scale runs 50% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, DL 738 did best on Wednesday at 82.7% on time and worst on Sunday at 60.8%. Each day rests on about 52 flights, so a gap of 22 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 738 runs when it is late
DL 738 often beats the schedule: 124 of 355 completed flights, 35%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 97 late arrivals split 37 under half an hour, 32 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 28 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early124 flights34.9%
- Within 15 min134 flights37.7%
- 15–29 min late37 flights10.4%
- 30–59 min late32 flights9.0%
- 1–2 hours late15 flights4.2%
- 2+ hours late13 flights3.7%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 355 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
24 of 87 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 28% of them. In the other direction, 34 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at LAX.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 738
The latest arrival of the period was on 26 February 2026, 18 hours 27 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 26 February 2026 | 18 hours 27 minutes | Carrier |
| 7 September 2025 | 17 hours 39 minutes | Carrier |
| 21 February 2026 | 7 hours 44 minutes | Carrier |
| 6 September 2025 | 7 hours 34 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 31 August 2026 | 3 hours 52 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why DL 738 runs late
Carrier accounts for 61% of the 7,848 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 61%Carrier
- 28%National Airspace System
- 10%Late-arriving aircraft
- 1%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 61%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,790 of the 7,848 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 7,848 delay minutes reported on DL 738.
Cancellations run at 2.74%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 40 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
7.9% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so 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, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on DL 738: 2.74% of its 365 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs a little over an hour, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- JFK to LAX, every carrier and departure
- LAX to JFK, the return direction
- American Airlines 171 on the same route88.1%
- Delta Air Lines 773 on the same route78.6%
- American Airlines 117 on the same route69.1%
- American Airlines 255 on the same route78.3%
- American Airlines 341 on the same route76.4%
- American Airlines 300 on the same route69.8%
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.