Route reliability record
ATL→PBI
Atlanta to West Palm Beach
- Flights
- 3,475
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 545 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route 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 roughly 55 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 3,475 ATL to PBI flights, with a median arrival 3 minutes early.
Best time to fly ATL to PBI: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 93.9% of the time and Wednesday flights 86.3%, against 75.8% 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
75.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,413 completed flights
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.61%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
76.4% on time across 3,402 flights
These figures cover 3,475 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.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on ATL to PBI
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,402 | 76.4% | 52 min | 1.62% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 73 | 47.2% | 81 min | 1.37% | F |
Flight by flight
Flights on ATL to PBI
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.
- Delta 83813:5978.4% · 334 flights
- Delta 152709:5082.7% · 334 flights
- Delta 95916:5273.5% · 333 flights
- Delta 119012:4480.5% · 333 flights
- Delta 160619:5469.2% · 332 flights
- Delta 145815:1774.5% · 331 flights
- Delta 131108:1088.8% · 330 flights
- Delta 149521:1574.8% · 276 flights
- Delta 106522:5970.3% · 263 flights
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Atlanta to West Palm Beach
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. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. ATL → PBIAtlanta to West Palm Beach | Delta Air Lines | 75.2% | 76.4% | 1.62% | 5am–8am, Wed (route) | DL 1311 08:10 |
| 2. ATL → FLLAtlanta to Fort Lauderdale | Delta Air Lines | 72.6% | 73.9% | 1.78% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 1334 07:25 |
| 3. ATL → FLLAtlanta to Fort Lauderdale | JetBlue Airways | 67.3% | 69.7% | 3.38% | 5am–8am, Wed | B6 1797 07:00 |
| 4. ATL → FLLAtlanta to Fort Lauderdale | Frontier Airlines | 62.4% | 64.0% | 2.48% | 5am–8am, Tue | F9 2174 22:48 |
| 5. ATL → FLLAtlanta to Fort Lauderdale | Spirit Airlines | 61.7% | 64.5% | 4.40% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
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 29 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am155 flights93.9%
- 8am–11am685 flights83.7%
- 11am–2pm495 flights79.9%
- 2pm–5pm853 flights74.8%
- 5pm–8pm519 flights64.8%
- 8pm–5am768 flights71.1%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 64.8% on time, against 93.9% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 853 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ATL to PBI 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 PBI, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 64.8%, a wide gap of 29.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.9%
- 8–11am83.7%
- 11am–2pm79.9%
- 2–5pm74.8%
- 5–8pm64.8%
- 8pm–5am71.1%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 20 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.
December is the weak month at 65.3% on time, against 85.4% in September. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. March was the busiest month here, with 347 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 66.4%, a spread of 20 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 45% of the 44,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Carrier
- 28%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 45%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 20,000 of the 44,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 44,326 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 93.9% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.61% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.17%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.7% 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 roughly 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 545 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 82.7% on time across 3,475 flights, 7 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 7 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 3,475 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 PBI 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. September runs 85.4% on time and December 65.3%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 3,413 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ATL to PBI questions
How often is ATL to PBI delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.2% of the 3,475 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average.
How reliable is ATL to PBI compared with the rest of the country?
75.8% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 points against it. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on ATL to PBI?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 64.8%, 29 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 December delays on ATL to PBI?
December is the weakest month at 65.3% on time, compared with 85.4% in September. Across the year that is 20 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
- PBI to ATL — the return legseparate record
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Palm Beach International (PBI) delay statistics
- ATL to LGA, a related route72.3%
- EWR to PBI, a related route77.5%
- ATL to MCO, a related route70.3%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record76.4%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record47.2%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. ATL to PBI and PBI to ATL are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed ATL to PBI’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.