Carrier route record

DLLAX→TPA

Delta Air Lines · Los Angeles to Tampa

Flights: 659
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 55%
Carriers: 3

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.

Delta on LAX to TPA lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five 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 659 flights, with a median arrival 3 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Delta on LAX to TPA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

78.6%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 649 completed flights

Avg delay

57 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.52%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

79.7%

Every carrier on LAX to TPA, 1,191 flights

These figures cover 659 flights between July 2025 and June 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.

Carrier by carrier

Delta against every carrier on LAX to TPA

Delta flew 659 of the 1,191 flights on LAX to TPA, most of the route. Its 78.6% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 79.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 88.9% to Southwest at 59.9%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.

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.

On-time performance by carrier on LAX to TPA
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	389	88.9%	55 min	0.26%	A+
Delta Air Lines (this page)	659	78.6%	57 min	1.52%	B
Southwest Airlinesthin sample	143	59.9%	40 min	0.00%	D+

Flight by flight

Delta flight numbers on LAX to TPA

Departure window

When Delta runs best on this route

Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 659 flights.

5am–8am—
8am–11am271 flights81.3%
11am–2pm94 flights73.6%
2pm–5pm—
5pm–8pm—
8pm–5am294 flights77.6%

Scale runs 65% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 73.6% on time against 81.3% for 8am–11am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 294 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

Delta on LAX to TPA through the year

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.September best, December worst

December is the weak month at 53.6% on time, against 94.4% 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 58 flights.

Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 83.8% on time and Friday the weakest at 71.7%. 12 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 50% of the 7,862 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.

Carrier
50%
Late-arriving aircraft
26%
National Airspace System
22%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
1%

The largest share of delay minutes, 50%, 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 3,930 of the 7,862 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 7,862 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.52% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

5.7% 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 2,158 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 83.1% on time across 659 flights, 5 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 5 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 659 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.

What to do with this

Booking Delta on LAX to TPA

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 659 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 78.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 649 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

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.

Key figures