Carrier route record
DLPHL→ATL
Delta Air Lines · Philadelphia to Atlanta
- Flights
- 3,029
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 53%
- Carriers
- 6
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on PHL to ATL earns a B. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 7 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 3,029 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, PSA Airlines, flew 834 at 82.1% on time.
Set against the rest of the country, Delta's PHL to ATL record is 7 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 73 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
84.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,945 completed flights
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.48%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
79.2%
Every carrier on PHL to ATL, 5,713 flights
These figures cover 3,029 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 12 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 PHL to ATL
Delta flew 3,029 of the 5,713 flights on PHL to ATL, most of the route. Its 84.9% on time is 6 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 79.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of six carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 90.1% to Spirit at 60.7%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. PSA Airlines arrives on time 82.1% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 66.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,008 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 156 | 90.1% | 93 min | 3.21% | A− |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 3,029 | 84.9% | 59 min | 2.48% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 834 | 82.1% | 68 min | 4.08% | B− |
| American Airlines | 594 | 68.3% | 70 min | 1.85% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,008 | 66.4% | 71 min | 2.78% | C |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 92 | 60.7% | 66 min | 3.26% | D− |
PSA Airlines cancels 4.1% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Delta flight numbers on PHL to ATL
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 14 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am727 flights90.8%
- 8am–11am648 flights88.3%
- 11am–2pm372 flights88.1%
- 2pm–5pm453 flights83.1%
- 5pm–8pm814 flights76.4%
- 8pm–5am15 flights—
Scale runs 70% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.8% of the time, against 76.4% for the evening window. That is 14 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 814 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on PHL to ATL through the year
December is the weak month at 75.0% on time, against 91.9% in February. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 283 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 91.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 79.1%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Delta runs late on this route
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 26,000 reported delay minutes.
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 25%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
41% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 26,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 26,217 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 90.8% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.48% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.30%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
5.4% 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.
The 666 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 76.1% on time across 3,028 flights, 9 points below 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 9 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 3,029 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.
What to do with this
Booking Delta on PHL to ATL
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 91.9% on time and December 75.0%, a swing of 17 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 2,945 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- PHL to ATL, every carrier
- Delta on ATL to PHL, the return leg
- Republic Airways on PHL to ATL90.1%
- PSA Airlines on PHL to ATL82.1%
- American Airlines on PHL to ATL68.3%
- Frontier Airlines on PHL to ATL66.4%
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.