Flight number record
DL 961
Delta Air Lines · Atlanta to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Route
- ATL → DFW
- Departs
- 08:55
- Flights
- 362
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 961, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 961 earns an A−. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 10 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs roughly 50 minutes. That rests on 362 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, DL 961's record is 10 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 100 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
87.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 347 completed flights
Avg delay
49 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.59%
National rate is 1.81%
1 hour+ late
3.2%
National rate is 8.1%
These figures cover 362 flights between July 2025 and June 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.
Schedule
When DL 961 flies
DL 961 flies ATL to DFW without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 08:55, used on 117 of 362 flights, with 08:56 (59 flights) next. Carriers retime flights through the season, so the rates here blend slightly different positions in the aircraft's day.
- Departs 08:55117 flights32.3%
- Departs 08:5659 flights16.3%
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 08:55 departure sits in the 8am–11am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 84.1%, and DL 961 runs 4 points better at 87.6%. Early departures usually start with an aircraft that has not flown yet that day, which is most of why the window does well.
Against the route
DL 961 next to ATL to DFW
Every carrier on ATL to DFW combined arrived on time 74.3% of the time across 6,698 flights, so DL 961 is 13 points ahead of it. Delta flew 2,791 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 75.4% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.6%, which this flight beats by 6 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 961thin sample | 362 | 87.6% | 49 min | 3.59% | A− |
| All Delta Air Lines on ATL–DFW | 2,791 | 75.4% | 57 min | 2.51% | B |
| All carriers on ATL–DFW | 6,698 | 74.3% | 80 min | 2.76% | C |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,038,570 | 81.6% | 71 min | 1.62% | B |
Across the year
DL 961 quarter by quarter
Quarter by quarter DL 961 held fairly steady: 92.2% in Jul–Sep 2025, 83.7% in Oct–Dec 2025, 91.5% in Jan–Mar 2026 and 83.1% in Apr–Jun 2026. A spread of 9 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
- Jul–Sep 202592 flights92.2%
- Oct–Dec 202590 flights83.7%
- Jan–Mar 202689 flights91.5%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights83.1%
Scale runs 75% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, DL 961 ranged from 83.0% on Tuesday to 91.8% on Friday. With about 52 flights behind each day, a spread of 9 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.
Delay causes
Why DL 961 runs late
One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 52% of the 2,090 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.
- 52%National Airspace System
- 34%Carrier
- 11%Late-arriving aircraft
- 3%Extreme weather
52% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 1,085 minutes out of 2,090, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 2,090 delay minutes reported on DL 961.
Cancellations run at 3.59%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.2% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% 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.
The 731 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
DL 961 is not only a ATL to DFW flight. It also flew DFW to ATL (349 flights, 86.1% 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. 362 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DFW to ATLthin sample | 349 | 86.1% | 53 min | 3.15% | A− |
What to do with this
Booking DL 961
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on DL 961: 3.59% of its 362 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs roughly 50 minutes, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- ATL to DFW, every carrier and departure
- DFW to ATL, the return direction
- American Airlines 1567 on the same route86.3%
- Delta Air Lines 921 on the same route74.4%
- Delta Air Lines 839 on the same route78.4%
- Delta Air Lines 818 on the same route78.9%
- Delta Air Lines 31 on the same route64.6%
- Delta Air Lines 414 on the same route81.2%
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.