Carrier route record
DLMSP→FSD
Delta Air Lines · Minneapolis to Sioux Falls
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 25%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on MSP to FSD 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 about an hour on average. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Delta on MSP to FSD from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 362 completed flights
Avg delay
60 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.82%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
77.8%
Every carrier on MSP to FSD, 1,456 flights
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Delta against every carrier on MSP to FSD
Delta flew 365 of the 1,456 flights on MSP to FSD, about 25% of it. Its 78.2% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 77.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 78.2% to SkyWest at 77.7%.
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.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 365 | 78.2% | 60 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,091 | 77.7% | 75 min | 1.10% | B |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
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 365 flights.
The overnight block holds up unusually well at 78.0% on time across 358 flights. Red-eyes fly into empty airspace and empty gates, and they are the first rotation of the aircraft's day rather than the last. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 358 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on MSP to FSD through the year
December is the weak month at 45.2% on time, against 90.3% in October. 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. January was the busiest month here, with 31 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.0%, a spread of 12 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Delta on MSP to FSD runs when it is late
Delta on MSP to FSD often beats the schedule: 139 of 362 completed flights, 38%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 79 late arrivals split 23 under half an hour, 27 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 29 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early139 flights38.4%
- Within 15 min144 flights39.8%
- 15–29 min late23 flights6.4%
- 30–59 min late27 flights7.5%
- 1–2 hours late24 flights6.6%
- 2+ hours late5 flights1.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 362 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 73 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 8 made it up before arrival. 14 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Delta on MSP to FSD
The latest arrival of the period was on 19 May 2026, 11 hours 24 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as a late-arriving aircraft.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 19 May 2026 | 11 hours 24 minutes | Carrier |
| 28 December 2025 | 3 hours 17 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 16 June 2026 | 2 hours 34 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 27 December 2025 | 2 hours 18 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 18 July 2026 | 2 hours | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Delta runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 56% of the 4,731 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Carrier
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 13%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 56%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,654 of the 4,731 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 4,731 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.82%, 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 costs
8.0% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 196 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 8pm–5am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 85.9% on time across 365 flights, 8 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 8 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 365 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 MSP to FSD
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 365 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 78.2% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 362 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
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.