Carrier route record
DLSEA→FAI
Delta Air Lines · Seattle to Fairbanks
- Flights
- 482
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 21%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on SEA to FAI lands a B, 2 points 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 a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 482 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Delta on SEA to FAI from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
79.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 471 completed flights
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.28%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
77.8%
Every carrier on SEA to FAI, 2,321 flights
These figures cover 482 flights between July 2025 and June 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.
Carrier by carrier
Delta against every carrier on SEA to FAI
Delta flew 482 of the 2,321 flights on SEA to FAI, about 21% of it. Its 79.6% on time is 2 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 77.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 79.6% to Alaska at 77.3%.
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) | 482 | 79.6% | 77 min | 2.28% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,839 | 77.3% | 44 min | 0.71% | B+ |
Flight by flight
Delta flight numbers on SEA to FAI
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 482 flights.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am24 flights—
- 11am–2pm97 flights81.4%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am361 flights80.0%
Scale runs 70% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The overnight block holds up unusually well at 80.0% on time across 361 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 361 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on SEA to FAI through the year
November is the best month on the calendar at 93.3% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. July was the busiest month here, with 62 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.3% on time and Thursday the weakest at 70.1%. 13 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 68% of the 7,357 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.
- 68%Carrier
- 18%Late-arriving aircraft
- 14%National Airspace System
The largest share of delay minutes, 68%, 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 4,996 of the 7,357 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 7,357 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.28% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
5.1% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,533 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 78.3% on time across 482 flights, within about 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. 482 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 SEA to FAI
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 482 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 79.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 471 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
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.