Flight number record
DL 802
Delta Air Lines · Los Angeles to Detroit
- Route
- LAX → DTW
- Departs
- 11:55
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 802, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 802 sits in the middle of the pack with a B+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 3 minutes early.
Key figures
On time
75.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 361 completed flights
Avg delay
66 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.82%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
7.8%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 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 802 flies
DL 802 flies LAX to DTW without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 11:55, used on 62 of 365 flights, with 12:00 (56 flights) next.
- Departs 11:5562 flights17.0%
- Departs 12:0056 flights15.3%
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 11:55 departure sits in the 11am–2pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 78.3%, and DL 802 runs 3 points worse at 75.3%. 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 802 next to LAX to DTW
Every carrier on LAX to DTW combined arrived on time 82.2% of the time across 2,364 flights, so DL 802 is 7 points behind it. Delta flew 1,955 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 83.2% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight trails by 6 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 802 | 365 | 75.3% | 66 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| All Delta Air Lines on LAX–DTW | 1,955 | 83.2% | 66 min | 0.92% | B+ |
| All carriers on LAX–DTW | 2,364 | 82.2% | 69 min | 1.23% | B |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 802 quarter by quarter
DL 802 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 96.7% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 65.2%, a swing of 32 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 flights96.7%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights82.2%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights65.2%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights75.8%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights68.9%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
By weekday, DL 802 did best on Tuesday at 80.8% on time and worst on Monday at 67.3%. Each day rests on about 52 flights, so a gap of 14 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 802 runs when it is late
The 89 late arrivals split 37 under half an hour, 24 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 28 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early75 flights20.8%
- Within 15 min197 flights54.6%
- 15–29 min late37 flights10.2%
- 30–59 min late24 flights6.6%
- 1–2 hours late16 flights4.4%
- 2+ hours late12 flights3.3%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 361 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
21 of 87 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 24% of them. In the other direction, 23 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 DTW.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 802
The latest arrival of the period was on 19 August 2026, 10 hours 15 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 19 August 2026 | 10 hours 15 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 28 May 2026 | 5 hours 26 minutes | Carrier |
| 8 May 2026 | 5 hours 9 minutes | Carrier |
| 24 July 2026 | 4 hours 20 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 7 August 2026 | 3 hours 42 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why DL 802 runs late
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 5,875 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 43%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
45% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 5,875 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 45 to one. The split is drawn from 5,875 delay minutes reported on DL 802.
Cancellations are rare at 0.82%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
7.8% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,979 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 802 in the data flew LAX to DTW. 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 802
For a booking, DL 802 is one of the weaker ways to fly LAX to DTW: 7 points below the route as a whole. If the schedule allows, compare it with the other departures listed on the route page before settling on this one.
Related
Where to go next
- LAX to DTW, every carrier and departure
- DTW to LAX, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 494 on the same route89.8%
- Delta Air Lines 708 on the same route81.8%
- Delta Air Lines 407 on the same route76.9%
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) 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.