Route reliability record
DAL→ATL
Dallas to Atlanta
- Flights
- 3,297
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 721 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 3,297 DAL to ATL flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,800 at 81.2% on time.
Best time to fly DAL to ATL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.9% of the time and Wednesday flights 80.5%, against 78.1% 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
78.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,228 completed flights
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.88%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
81.2% on time across 1,800 flights
These figures cover 3,297 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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 DAL to ATL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 81.2% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 74.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,497 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,800 | 81.2% | 89 min | 2.06% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,497 | 74.3% | 57 min | 1.67% | C |
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 DAL 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 Dallas to Atlanta
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. DFW → ATLDallas-Fort Worth to Atlanta | Delta Air Lines | 81.3% | 83.5% | 2.59% | 5am–8am, Tue | DL 401 05:25 |
| 2. DAL → ATLDallas to Atlanta | Delta Air Lines | 79.5% | 81.2% | 2.06% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 516 06:00 |
| 3. DAL → ATLDallas to Atlanta | Southwest Airlines | 73.1% | 74.3% | 1.67% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 4. DFW → ATLDallas-Fort Worth to Atlanta | American Airlines | 69.0% | 70.8% | 2.59% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 5. DFW → ATLDallas-Fort Worth to Atlanta | Frontier Airlines | 65.0% | 66.2% | 1.82% | 8am–11am, Thu | F9 3022 10:00 |
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 34 points, against 7 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am641 flights90.9%
- 8am–11am713 flights88.0%
- 11am–2pm511 flights80.8%
- 2pm–5pm684 flights69.1%
- 5pm–8pm658 flights65.0%
- 8pm–5am90 flights56.8%
Scale runs 50% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 56.8% on time, against 90.9% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 713 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DAL 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 DAL to ATL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.9% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 56.8%, a wide gap of 34.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.9%
- 8–11am88.0%
- 11am–2pm80.8%
- 2–5pm69.1%
- 5–8pm65.0%
- 8pm–5am56.8%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%.
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.
July is the worst month at 67.2% on time, 20 points below September, the best at 87.5%. 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 80.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 75.3%, a spread of 5 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 51,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 35%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 51,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 50,918 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 18,000 of the 51,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.88% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.21%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.9% 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.
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 80.4% 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 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 87.5% on time and July 67.2%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 3,228 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DAL to ATL questions
How often is DAL to ATL delayed?
Roughly 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 21.9% of the 3,297 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 DAL to ATL?
Delta Air Lines leads at 81.2% on time across 1,800 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 74.3%, 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 DAL to ATL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.9% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 56.8%, 34 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 DAL to ATL?
July is the weakest month at 67.2% on time, compared with 87.5% 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
- ATL to DAL — the return legseparate record
- Dallas Love Field (DAL) delay statistics
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on DAL to ATL81.2%
- Southwest Airlines on DAL to ATL74.3%
- DAL to HOU, a related route74.8%
- LGA to ATL, a related route75.5%
- DAL to DEN, a related route70.2%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record81.2%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record74.3%
- 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. DAL to ATL and ATL to DAL 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.