Flight number record
DL 836
Delta Air Lines · Atlanta to Phoenix
- Route
- ATL → PHX
- Departs
- 16:59
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 836, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 836 sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 7 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 right on schedule.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so DL 836 runs 7 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 74 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
69.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 359 completed flights
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.37%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
13.4%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 13.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Schedule
When DL 836 flies
DL 836 flies ATL to PHX without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 16:59, used on 71 of 365 flights, with 17:59 (65 flights) and 17:00 (61 flights) next.
- Departs 16:5971 flights19.5%
- Departs 17:5965 flights17.8%
- Departs 17:0061 flights16.7%
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 16:59 departure sits in the 2pm–5pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 71.9%, and DL 836 runs 2 points worse at 69.9%. 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 836 next to ATL to PHX
Every carrier on ATL to PHX combined arrived on time 75.2% of the time across 3,693 flights, so DL 836 is 5 points behind it. Delta flew 2,280 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 75.9% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight trails by 11 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 836 | 365 | 69.9% | 72 min | 1.37% | C |
| All Delta Air Lines on ATL–PHX | 2,280 | 75.9% | 57 min | 0.88% | B+ |
| All carriers on ATL–PHX | 3,693 | 75.2% | 63 min | 0.79% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 836 quarter by quarter
DL 836 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 90.0% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 43.3%, a swing of 47 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 flights90.0%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights74.2%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights75.3%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights71.4%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights43.3%
Scale runs 35% to 95%.
By weekday, DL 836 did best on Wednesday at 80.8% on time and worst on Friday at 58.8%. 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 836 runs when it is late
The 108 late arrivals split 30 under half an hour, 30 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 48 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early61 flights17.0%
- Within 15 min190 flights52.9%
- 15–29 min late30 flights8.4%
- 30–59 min late30 flights8.4%
- 1–2 hours late26 flights7.2%
- 2+ hours late22 flights6.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 359 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 96 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 11 made it up before arrival. 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 PHX.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 836
The latest arrival of the period was on 19 May 2026, 5 hours 34 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 19 May 2026 | 5 hours 34 minutes | Carrier |
| 8 May 2026 | 4 hours 55 minutes | Carrier |
| 5 November 2025 | 4 hours 6 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 5 January 2026 | 3 hours 26 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 17 March 2026 | 3 hours 14 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why DL 836 runs late
Carrier accounts for 54% of the 7,744 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 54%Carrier
- 24%Late-arriving aircraft
- 18%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 54%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,193 of the 7,744 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 7,744 delay minutes reported on DL 836.
Cancellations sit at 1.37% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
13.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 1,587 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 836 in the data flew ATL to PHX. 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 836
For a booking, DL 836 is a flight to put a long connection behind. 13.4% of its completed flights arrived an hour or more late, which a short layover will not absorb. If the onward flight is on a separate ticket, the risk sits with you.
Related
Where to go next
- ATL to PHX, every carrier and departure
- PHX to ATL, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 348 on the same route80.1%
- Delta Air Lines 757 on the same route70.2%
- Delta Air Lines 796 on the same route79.6%
- Delta Air Lines 842 on the same route72.8%
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) 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
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
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.