Route reliability record
ATL→DAL
Atlanta to Dallas
- Flights
- 3,297
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 721 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 3,297 ATL to DAL flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,799 at 83.6% on time.
Best time to fly ATL to DAL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 94.3% of the time and Wednesday flights 85.7%, against 80.4% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
80.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,216 completed flights
Avg delay
61 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.85%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
83.6% on time across 1,799 flights
These figures cover 3,297 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on ATL to DAL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 83.6% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 76.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,498 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,799 | 83.6% | 65 min | 2.00% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,498 | 76.6% | 58 min | 1.67% | B |
Delta leads Southwest by 7 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on ATL to DAL
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Atlanta to Dallas
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 3 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. ATL → DALAtlanta to Dallas | Delta Air Lines | 81.9% | 83.6% | 2.00% | 8am–11am, Wed | DL 1115 10:00 |
| 2. ATL → DALAtlanta to Dallas | Southwest Airlines | 75.3% | 76.6% | 1.67% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 3. ATL → DFWAtlanta to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 74.4% | 76.4% | 2.59% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 2770 05:31 |
| 4. ATL → DFWAtlanta to Dallas-Fort Worth | Delta Air Lines | 74.1% | 76.0% | 2.55% | 8am–11am, Wed | DL 961 08:56 |
| 5. ATL → DFWAtlanta to Dallas-Fort Worth | Frontier Airlines | 58.8% | 59.8% | 1.71% | 5am–8am, Wed | F9 3021 10:54 |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 26 points, against 7 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am361 flights94.3%
- 8am–11am752 flights88.5%
- 11am–2pm336 flights85.6%
- 2pm–5pm918 flights76.5%
- 5pm–8pm344 flights68.2%
- 8pm–5am586 flights71.8%
Scale runs 60% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.3% of the time, against 68.2% for the evening window. That is 26 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 918 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ATL to DAL by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On ATL to DAL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 94.3% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 68.2%, a wide gap of 26.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am94.3%
- 8–11am88.5%
- 11am–2pm85.6%
- 2–5pm76.5%
- 5–8pm68.2%
- 8pm–5am71.8%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 19 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
July is the worst month at 69.3% on time, 19 points below February, the best at 88.0%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. October was the busiest month here, with 316 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 85.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 75.1%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
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 39,000 reported delay minutes.
- 40%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
40% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 39,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 to one. The split is drawn from 38,511 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 37%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 14,000 of the 39,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.85% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.61%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.6% 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.
The 721 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.
The return leg runs 78.1% on time across 3,297 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 3,297 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in DAL after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 88.0% on time and July 69.3%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 3,216 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ATL to DAL questions
How often is ATL to DAL delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.6% of the 3,297 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on ATL to DAL?
Delta Air Lines leads at 83.6% on time across 1,799 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 76.6%, a gap of 7 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on ATL to DAL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 94.3% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.2%, 26 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on ATL to DAL?
July is the weakest month at 69.3% on time, compared with 88.0% in February. Across the year that is 19 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- DAL to ATL — the return legseparate record
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Dallas Love Field (DAL) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on ATL to DAL83.6%
- Southwest Airlines on ATL to DAL76.6%
- ATL to LGA, a related route72.3%
- HOU to DAL, a related route81.6%
- ATL to MCO, a related route70.3%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record83.6%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record76.6%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. ATL to DAL and DAL to ATL are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.