Route reliability record
PHX→ATL
Phoenix to Atlanta
- Flights
- 3,696
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,587 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B+, 3 points 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 3,696 PHX to ATL flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 2,283 at 85.4% on time.
Best time to fly PHX to ATL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.0% of the time and Wednesday flights 85.0%, against 80.7% for the route overall.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 85.4% on time across 2,283 flights.
Key figures
On time
80.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,654 completed flights
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.87%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
85.4% on time across 2,283 flights
These figures cover 3,696 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 6 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 PHX to ATL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 85.4% of the time; American Airlines manages 71.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 608 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 2,283 | 85.4% | 102 min | 1.01% | A |
| Southwest Airlines | 571 | 74.7% | 42 min | 0.18% | C+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 234 | 72.8% | 72 min | 2.14% | C |
| American Airlines | 608 | 71.8% | 66 min | 0.49% | 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 PHX 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.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Phoenix to Atlanta
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PHX → ATLPhoenix to Atlanta | Delta Air Lines | 84.5% | 85.4% | 1.01% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 918 06:00 |
| 2. PHX → ATLPhoenix to Atlanta | Southwest Airlines | 74.6% | 74.7% | 0.18% | 8am–11am, Mon | — |
| 3. PHX → ATLPhoenix to Atlanta | American Airlines | 71.4% | 71.8% | 0.49% | 8am–11am, Wed | AA 2391 16:10 |
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 36 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am790 flights91.0%
- 8am–11am861 flights78.3%
- 11am–2pm573 flights79.7%
- 2pm–5pm730 flights76.2%
- 5pm–8pm54 flights54.7%
- 8pm–5am688 flights79.5%
Scale runs 45% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 54.7% on time, against 91.0% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 861 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHX 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 PHX to ATL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.0% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 54.7%, a wide gap of 36.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.0%
- 8–11am78.3%
- 11am–2pm79.7%
- 2–5pm76.2%
- 5–8pm54.7%
- 8pm–5am79.5%
best all US flightsScale 45% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 20 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.
July is the worst month at 67.3% on time, 20 points below February, the best at 86.8%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. April was the busiest month here, with 357 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 85.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.9%, a spread of 8 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 47% of the 55,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%Carrier
- 37%Late-arriving aircraft
- 12%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
37% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 55,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 55,298 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 47%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 26,000 of the 55,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.87%, 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
6.1% 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 1,587 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 75.2% on time across 3,693 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 3,696 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. February runs 86.8% on time and July 67.3%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 3,654 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHX to ATL questions
How often is PHX 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 19.3% of the 3,696 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 PHX to ATL?
Delta Air Lines leads at 85.4% on time across 2,283 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 71.8%, 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 PHX to ATL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.0% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 54.7%, 36 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 July delays on PHX to ATL?
July is the weakest month at 67.3% on time, compared with 86.8% in February. Across the year that is 20 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 PHX — the return legseparate record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on PHX to ATL85.4%
- Southwest Airlines on PHX to ATL74.7%
- Frontier Airlines on PHX to ATL72.8%
- American Airlines on PHX to ATL71.8%
- PHX to DEN, a related route76.7%
- LGA to ATL, a related route75.5%
- PHX to LAX, a related route82.1%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record85.4%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record74.7%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record72.8%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. PHX to ATL and ATL to PHX 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.