Route reliability record
BNA→ATL
Nashville to Atlanta
- Flights
- 4,271
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 214 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 4,271 BNA to ATL flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,368 at 86.1% on time.
Best time to fly BNA to ATL: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.2% of the time and Wednesday flights 88.2%, against 82.7% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 5 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 54 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
82.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,197 completed flights
Avg delay
70 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.66%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
86.1% on time across 3,368 flights
These figures cover 4,271 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 11 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 BNA to ATL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.1% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 70.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 903 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,368 | 86.1% | 78 min | 2.05% | A |
| Southwest Airlines | 903 | 70.4% | 57 min | 0.22% | C+ |
The spread between Delta and Southwest is 16 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 16 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on BNA to ATL
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 Nashville to Atlanta
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. BNA → ATLNashville to Atlanta | Delta Air Lines | 84.3% | 86.1% | 2.05% | 8am–11am, Wed | DL 2637 05:15 |
| 2. BNA → ATLNashville to Atlanta | Southwest Airlines | 70.2% | 70.4% | 0.22% | 8am–11am, 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 26 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,003 flights90.3%
- 8am–11am794 flights91.2%
- 11am–2pm753 flights83.5%
- 2pm–5pm787 flights77.1%
- 5pm–8pm821 flights72.3%
- 8pm–5am113 flights65.5%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 91.2% of the time, against 65.5% for the overnight 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,003 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter BNA to ATL 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 BNA to ATL, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 91.2% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 65.5%, a wide gap of 25.7 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am90.3%
- 8–11am91.2%
- 11am–2pm83.5%
- 2–5pm77.1%
- 5–8pm72.3%
- 8pm–5am65.5%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 25 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 68.1% on time, 25 points below September, the best at 93.0%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 403 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.2% on time and Monday the weakest at 77.7%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 50,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 50,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 50,453 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 91.2% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.66% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.07%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.1% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 214 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 8am–11am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 79.6% on time across 4,258 flights, 3 points below 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 3 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 4,271 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 ATL 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 93.0% on time and July 68.1%, a swing of 25 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 4,197 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
BNA to ATL questions
How often is BNA to ATL delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.3% of the 4,271 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on BNA to ATL?
Delta Air Lines leads at 86.1% on time across 3,368 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 70.4%, a gap of 16 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 BNA to ATL?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 91.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 65.5%, 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 BNA to ATL?
July is the weakest month at 68.1% on time, compared with 93.0% in September. Across the year that is 25 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
- ATL to BNA — the return legseparate record
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on BNA to ATL86.1%
- Southwest Airlines on BNA to ATL70.4%
- BNA to ORD, a related route70.9%
- LGA to ATL, a related route75.5%
- BNA to DCA, a related route71.3%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record86.1%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record70.4%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. BNA to ATL and ATL to BNA 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.