Flight number record
DL 787
Delta Air Lines · Spokane to Atlanta
- Route
- GEG → ATL
- Departs
- 12:36
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 787, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 787 earns an A. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 9 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs roughly 55 minutes. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 16 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, DL 787's record is 9 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 91 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
86.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 360 completed flights
Avg delay
53 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.10%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
3.1%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 16 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 787 flies
DL 787 flies GEG to ATL without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 12:36, used on 47 of 365 flights, with 12:55 (38 flights) next.
- Departs 12:3647 flights12.9%
- Departs 12:5538 flights10.4%
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 12:36 departure sits in the 11am–2pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 78.3%, and DL 787 runs 8 points better at 86.4%. 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 787 next to GEG to ATL
Every carrier on GEG to ATL combined arrived on time 85.8% of the time across 540 flights, so DL 787 is about level with it. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight beats by 5 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 787 | 365 | 86.4% | 53 min | 1.10% | A |
| All Delta Air Lines on GEG–ATL | 540 | 85.8% | 59 min | 0.74% | A+ |
| All carriers on GEG–ATL | 540 | 85.8% | 59 min | 0.74% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 787 quarter by quarter
DL 787 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 93.3% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 81.3%, a swing of 12 points on roughly 73 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 flights93.3%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights81.3%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights93.0%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights82.4%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights87.1%
Scale runs 75% to 100%.
By weekday, DL 787 ranged from 80.8% on Thursday to 92.2% on Friday. With about 52 flights behind each day, a spread of 11 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 787 runs when it is late
DL 787 often beats the schedule: 198 of 360 completed flights, 55%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 49 late arrivals split 20 under half an hour, 18 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 11 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early198 flights55.0%
- Within 15 min113 flights31.4%
- 15–29 min late20 flights5.6%
- 30–59 min late18 flights5.0%
- 1–2 hours late7 flights1.9%
- 2+ hours late4 flights1.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 360 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
A late pushback is often recovered here: of 65 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 28 still arrived on time. 12 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 787
The latest arrival of the period was on 8 November 2025, 6 hours 29 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as national airspace system delay. The five worst days are spread across November, August, October and January, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 8 November 2025 | 6 hours 29 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 26 August 2026 | 3 hours 23 minutes | Carrier |
| 26 November 2025 | 2 hours 21 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 23 October 2025 | 2 hours 5 minutes | Carrier |
| 6 January 2026 | 1 hour 50 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why DL 787 runs late
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 2,574 reported delay minutes.
- 38%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%National Airspace System
- 24%Carrier
- 2%Extreme weather
38% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 2,574 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 18 to one. The split is drawn from 2,574 delay minutes reported on DL 787.
Cancellations sit at 1.10% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.1% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% 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.
At 1,969 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 787 is not only a GEG to ATL flight. It also flew ATL to GEG (365 flights, 84.4% 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.
| Also flown as | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ATL to GEG | 365 | 84.4% | 36 min | 1.10% | B |
What to do with this
Booking DL 787
For a booking, DL 787 has one of the better records a US domestic flight can show: 86.4% on time and 1.10% cancelled. That is a base rate, not a promise about any single day.
Related
Where to go next
- 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
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.