Carrier route record
DLMSP→MIA
Delta Air Lines · Minneapolis to Miami
- Flights
- 760
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 68%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on MSP to MIA lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.6%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 45 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 760 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Delta on MSP to MIA 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 751 completed flights
Avg delay
47 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.79%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
82.4%
Every carrier on MSP to MIA, 1,125 flights
These figures cover 760 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 5 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 MSP to MIA
Delta flew 760 of the 1,125 flights on MSP to MIA, most of the route. Its 78.2% on time is 4 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 82.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 91.1% to Delta at 78.2%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 365 | 91.1% | 144 min | 1.10% | A |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 760 | 78.2% | 47 min | 0.79% | B+ |
Flight by flight
Delta flight numbers on MSP to MIA
Departure window
When Delta runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 11 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am20 flights—
- 8am–11am366 flights83.9%
- 11am–2pm236 flights73.9%
- 2pm–5pm5 flights—
- 5pm–8pm132 flights72.5%
- 8pm–5am1 flights—
Scale runs 65% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 83.9% of the time, against 72.5% for the evening window. That is 11 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 366 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on MSP to MIA through the year
December is the weak month at 57.4% on time, against 88.1% 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. December was the busiest month here, with 71 flights.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 85.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.5%. 15 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. National Airspace System accounts for 50% of the 7,667 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.
- 50%National Airspace System
- 33%Carrier
- 11%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%Extreme weather
50% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 3,827 minutes out of 7,667, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 7,667 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.79%, below the national 1.81% 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
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.5% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
At 1,501 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 77.6% on time across 759 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 760 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 MIA
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 760 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. 751 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- MSP to MIA, every carrier
- Delta on MIA to MSP, the return leg
- American Airlines on MSP to MIA91.1%
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- Miami International (MIA) delay statistics
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
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.