Flight number record

DL 968

Delta Air Lines · New York to Atlanta

Route: LGA → ATL
Departs: 17:00
Flights: 351
Period: July 2025 to June 2026

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 968, check with Delta Air Lines.

DL 968 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 an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 351 flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.

On time

74.3%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 343 completed flights

Avg delay

85 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.99%

National rate is 1.81%

1 hour+ late

13.1%

National rate is 8.1%

These figures cover 351 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 13.1% 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 968 flies

DL 968 is scheduled to leave New York (LGA) at 17:00 local time and reach Atlanta (ATL) at 19:57. That slot held for 325 of the 351 scheduled departures in the data, so the figures below describe one steady operation rather than a number that moved around the clock.

Departs 17:00325 flights92.6%

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 17:00 departure sits in the 5pm–8pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 68.2%, and DL 968 runs 6 points better at 74.3%. By that time of day most aircraft have flown several legs already, and whatever went wrong earlier is still in the schedule.

Against the route

DL 968 next to LGA to ATL

Every carrier on LGA to ATL combined arrived on time 76.6% of the time across 8,343 flights, so DL 968 is 2 points behind it. Delta flew 4,933 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 79.9% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.6%, which this flight trails by 7 points.

DL 968 against its route and carrier
Compared with	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
DL 968thin sample	351	74.3%	85 min	1.99%	C
All Delta Air Lines on LGA–ATL	4,933	79.9%	73 min	2.98%	B
All carriers on LGA–ATL	8,343	76.6%	78 min	3.67%	B−
Delta Air Lines, whole network	1,038,570	81.6%	71 min	1.62%	B

Across the year

DL 968 quarter by quarter

DL 968 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jan–Mar 2026 at 81.6% on time and its weakest Apr–Jun 2026 at 68.3%, a swing of 13 points on roughly 88 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 202586 flights73.8%
Oct–Dec 202592 flights73.3%
Jan–Mar 202690 flights81.6%
Apr–Jun 202683 flights68.3%

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

By weekday, DL 968 did best on Saturday at 89.2% on time and worst on Thursday at 66.7%. Each day rests on about 50 flights, so a gap of 23 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.

Delay causes

Why DL 968 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 7,507 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
42%
National Airspace System
33%
Carrier
24%
Extreme weather
1%

42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 7,507 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 38 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 7,507 delay minutes reported on DL 968.

Cancellations sit at 1.99% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.28%.

Connections and routes

What a delay on this flight costs

For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 13.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.

The 762 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.

Every one of the 351 flights under DL 968 in the data flew LGA to ATL. 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. 351 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 968

For a booking, DL 968 is a flight to put a long connection behind. 13.1% 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.

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