Flight number record

DL 771

Delta Air Lines · New York to Los Angeles

Route: JFK → LAX
Departs: 16:55
Flights: 358
Period: July 2025 to June 2026

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 771, check with Delta Air Lines.

DL 771 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 about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 358 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.

On time

74.7%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 352 completed flights

Avg delay

56 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.68%

National rate is 1.81%

1 hour+ late

8.0%

National rate is 8.1%

These figures cover 358 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.0% 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 771 flies

DL 771 flies JFK to LAX without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 16:55, used on 110 of 358 flights, with 17:00 (56 flights) and 16:50 (39 flights) next. Carriers retime flights through the season, so the rates here blend slightly different positions in the aircraft's day.

Departs 16:55110 flights30.7%
Departs 17:0056 flights15.6%
Departs 16:5039 flights10.9%

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 16:55 departure sits in the 2pm–5pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 72.4%, and DL 771 runs 2 points better at 74.7%. Midday slots inherit some of the morning's delays without yet carrying the full weight of the evening's.

Against the route

DL 771 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 771 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 771 against its route and carrier
Compared with	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
DL 771thin sample	358	74.7%	56 min	1.68%	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 771 quarter by quarter

DL 771 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jan–Mar 2026 at 80.2% on time and its weakest Apr–Jun 2026 at 69.8%, a swing of 10 points on roughly 90 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 flights73.9%
Oct–Dec 202589 flights75.0%
Jan–Mar 202689 flights80.2%
Apr–Jun 202688 flights69.8%

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

By weekday, DL 771 ranged from 71.7% on Tuesday to 78.4% on Friday. With about 51 flights behind each day, a spread of 7 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.

Delay causes

Why DL 771 runs late

One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 42% of the 5,002 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
42%
Late-arriving aircraft
10%
Extreme weather
6%

The largest share of delay minutes, 42%, 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 2,106 of the 5,002 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 5,002 delay minutes reported on DL 771.

Cancellations sit at 1.68% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.

Connections and routes

What a delay on this flight costs

8.0% 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 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 358 flights under DL 771 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. 358 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 771

For a booking, read DL 771 as 74.7% on time with 1.68% cancelled over 358 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