Carrier route record
DLATL→PHX
Delta Air Lines · Atlanta to Phoenix
- Flights
- 2,301
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 61%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on ATL to PHX lands a B+, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 2,301 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, American Airlines, flew 614 at 79.2% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Delta on ATL to PHX from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
76.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,275 completed flights
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.87%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
75.4%
Every carrier on ATL to PHX, 3,762 flights
These figures cover 2,301 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 2 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.
Carrier by carrier
Delta against every carrier on ATL to PHX
Delta flew 2,301 of the 3,762 flights on ATL to PHX, most of the route. Its 76.0% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 75.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 79.2% to Frontier at 67.8%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 79.2% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 72.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 633 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 614 | 79.2% | 94 min | 0.49% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 2,301 | 76.0% | 59 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 633 | 72.0% | 48 min | 0.32% | C+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 214 | 67.8% | 74 min | 0.93% | C+ |
American leads Southwest by 7 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Delta flight numbers on ATL to PHX
Departure window
When Delta runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 13 points, against 7 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am576 flights78.2%
- 11am–2pm573 flights82.0%
- 2pm–5pm102 flights78.2%
- 5pm–8pm416 flights69.5%
- 8pm–5am634 flights72.2%
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 82.0% on time, ahead of 5pm–8pm at 69.5%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 634 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on ATL to PHX through the year
July is the worst month at 65.4% on time, 21 points below March, the best at 86.4%. 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. April was the busiest month here, with 211 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 81.1% on time and Monday the weakest at 72.3%. 9 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Delta runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 54% of the 32,000 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.
- 54%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 20%Late-arriving aircraft
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 54%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 17,000 of the 32,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 32,181 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.87%, below the national 1.81% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
7.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says 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.
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.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 87.0% on time across 2,303 flights, 11 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 11 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,301 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.
What to do with this
Booking Delta on ATL to PHX
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. March runs 86.4% on time and July 65.4%, a swing of 21 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 2,275 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- ATL to PHX, every carrier
- Delta on PHX to ATL, the return leg
- American Airlines on ATL to PHX79.2%
- Southwest Airlines on ATL to PHX72.0%
- Frontier Airlines on ATL to PHX67.8%
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
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.