Route reliability record
LAX→ATL
Los Angeles to Atlanta
- Flights
- 4,843
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,947 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B+, about a point 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 a little over an hour on average. That rests on 4,843 LAX to ATL flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,811 at 80.8% on time.
Best time to fly LAX to ATL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Thursday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.2% of the time and Thursday flights 82.8%, against 78.6% for the route overall.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 80.8% on time across 3,811 flights.
Key figures
On time
78.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,787 completed flights
Avg delay
68 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.89%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
80.8% on time across 3,811 flights
These figures cover 4,843 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 4 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 LAX to ATL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 80.8% of the time; American Airlines manages 66.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 376 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 167 | 85.5% | 68 min | 0.60% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 3,811 | 80.8% | 66 min | 0.84% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 489 | 68.2% | 65 min | 1.64% | C |
| American Airlines | 376 | 66.5% | 84 min | 0.53% | C+ |
The spread between Delta and American is 14 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 14 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on LAX 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.
- Delta 51507:0082.9% · 365 flights
- Delta 39006:0088.5% · 365 flights
- Delta 78208:2579.8% · 365 flights
- Delta 78321:5580.2% · 362 flights
- Delta 89922:5579.5% · 350 flights
- Delta 44612:2084.7% · 340 flights
- Delta 52811:0584.7% · 304 flights
- Delta 47117:3084.2% · 281 flights
- Frontier 321623:3469.1% · 261 flights
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Los Angeles 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. 2 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. ONT → ATLOntario to Atlanta | Delta Air Lines | 87.4% | 89.0% | 1.82% | 8pm–5am, Tue | DL 761 07:05 |
| 2. LAX → ATLLos Angeles to Atlanta | Delta Air Lines | 80.1% | 80.8% | 0.84% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 390 06:00 |
| 3. SNA → ATLSanta Ana to Atlanta | Delta Air Lines | 79.1% | 79.9% | 0.98% | 8pm–5am, Thu | DL 721 06:45 |
| 4. LAX → ATLLos Angeles to Atlanta | Frontier Airlines | 67.1% | 68.2% | 1.64% | 2pm–5pm, Thu | F9 3216 23:34 |
| 5. LAX → ATLLos Angeles to Atlanta | American Airlines | 66.1% | 66.5% | 0.53% | 8am–11am, Thu | — |
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 19 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am776 flights88.2%
- 8am–11am1,088 flights69.0%
- 11am–2pm917 flights80.7%
- 2pm–5pm491 flights80.5%
- 5pm–8pm219 flights86.6%
- 8pm–5am1,352 flights77.5%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.2% of the time, against 69.0% for the morning window. That is 19 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 1,352 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter LAX 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 LAX to ATL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.2% on time and the worst is 8am–11am at 69.0%, a wide gap of 19.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.2%
- 8–11am69.0%
- 11am–2pm80.7%
- 2–5pm80.5%
- 5–8pm86.6%
- 8pm–5am77.5%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 17 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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 87.9% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. September was the busiest month here, with 455 flights.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 82.8% on time and Saturday the weakest at 74.7%, a spread of 8 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 52% of the 70,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 52%Carrier
- 31%Late-arriving aircraft
- 16%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 52%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 36,000 of the 70,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 69,670 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 88.2% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.89%, below the national 1.89% 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 actually costs
6.4% 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 1,947 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 runs 77.8% on time across 4,851 flights, within about a point 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 4,843 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 87.9% on time and March 70.9%, a swing of 17 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 4,787 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
LAX to ATL questions
How often is LAX to ATL 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 21.4% of the 4,843 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 LAX to ATL?
Delta Air Lines leads at 80.8% on time across 3,811 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 66.5%, a gap of 14 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 LAX to ATL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.2% on time. The 8am–11am window is the weakest at 69.0%, 19 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 March delays on LAX to ATL?
March is the weakest month at 70.9% on time, compared with 87.9% in September. Across the year that is 17 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 LAX — the return legseparate record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Spirit Airlines on LAX to ATL85.5%
- Delta Air Lines on LAX to ATL80.8%
- Frontier Airlines on LAX to ATL68.2%
- American Airlines on LAX to ATL66.5%
- LAX to SFO, a related route60.1%
- LGA to ATL, a related route75.5%
- LAX to JFK, a related route77.5%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record85.5%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record80.8%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record68.2%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. LAX to ATL and ATL to LAX 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.