Airline · DL · 2020–2025 BTS data
Delta Air Lines
According to PlainFlights' airline traffic ranking (BTS On-Time Performance total flights), Delta Air Lines ranks #2 of 18 tracked US carriers by total flights (most flights = #1).
Data updated 2026-06-13
- 84.6%
- On-time
- +5.6 pts
- vs US avg
- 76 min
- Delay when late
- 1.47%
- Cancelled
- #2 of 18
- Corpus placement
According to PlainFlights' airline traffic ranking (BTS On-Time Performance total flights), Delta Air Lines ranks #2 of 18 tracked US carriers by total flights (most flights = #1). How we place airlines.
PlainFlights Reliability Score
Transparent derived index from BTS On-Time Performance data — not an official DOT/FAA rating.
- On-Time Rate B+
84.6%
Share of flights arriving within the BTS 15-minute on-time threshold
- Delay Severity D
76 min
Total arrival-delay minutes (all flights, including delays under 15 min) divided by the flights that arrived 15+ min late
- Cancellation Rate A+
1.47%
Share of scheduled flights cancelled
Weighted from on-time rate, delay minutes per late flight, and cancellation rate, each scored against the 18 currently tracked U.S. carriers with meaningful flight volume (percentile method). A dimension without a reported value drops out and its weight redistributes to the rest — missing data never deflates the score. See the full formula, weights, and live benchmark table.
BTS on-time dispatch plate
Carrier DL · Delta Air Lines
ONTIME-SOLID · ABOVE-AVG · BOOK-MEGA · CARRIER-LED · CX-WARM · SPREAD-WIDE
- ONTIME-SOLID 84.6% on-time
- ABOVE-AVG +5.6 pts vs US
- BOOK-MEGA 5.2M flights
- CARRIER-LED Carrier-led delays
- CX-WARM 1.47% cancel
- SPREAD-WIDE 18-pt season gap
Nearest on-time peer: Republic Airways (+ 0.3 pts)
Instrument codes from this carrier’s BTS on-time band, national gap, flight-book size, leading delay cause, cancel posture, and seasonal spread, not a booking recommendation.
On-time neighbourhood
Poles + nearest peers, not a full 18-carrier reprint
- EV
EV 89.8%
90
- QX
QX 85.7%
86
- YX
YX 84.9%
85
- DL
DL 84.6%
85
- OO
OO 83.6%
84
- HA
HA 83.1%
83
- F9
F9 73.7%
74
What this shows How DL sits among BTS on-time poles and nearest peers.
Delta Air Lines - monthly on-time rate
Last 24 months reported; ranged 72%–90%
Delta Air Lines - BTS Delay Tier Breakdown
How Delta Air Lines flights distribute across federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics arrival-delay tiers. The on-time band uses the BTS 15-minute threshold; longer-delay tiers reflect arrival-time bins reported in the underlying database.
Delay Cause Breakdown
Top delay cause: Carrier.
Source: U.S. DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, On-Time Performance
Seasonal on-time calendar
Multi-year average by calendar month for DL (BTS 2020–2025), not a single recent year.
-
Best month
October
89.1% on-time · ~76,174 flights/mo
-
Mid pack
January
84.4% on-time · ~70,522 flights/mo
-
Worst month
July
78.7% on-time · ~77,025 flights/mo
Spread 10.4 pts between October and July. The monthly chart above shows the recent path; this desk ranks the long-run calendar.
DL delay-share reading
Across 5,242,763 BTS-reported flights (2020–2025), Delta Air Lines posts 84.6% on-time, 5.6 points above the 79% national flight-weighted average, with 807,861 delayed arrivals and 76,994 cancellations (1.47% of the book). When a flight runs late, the average delay is 76.0 minutes.
Nearest on-time peer
Closest BTS on-time neighbour for DL, not a universal board reprint.
Republic Airways
+0.3 pts on-time vs DL
Field definitions: on-time performance explained.
What to do with the Delta Air Lines on-time record
A single carrier's rate rarely settles a travel decision on its own -- use it as a starting point, not a verdict.
- See how Delta Air Lines ranks against every other tracked carrier on on-time performance. Airline performance rankings
- Put Delta Air Lines side by side against another airline on the same metrics. Compare airlines
- Carrier is this airline's leading delay cause -- see how it's measured. Read methodology
Reflects BTS On-Time Performance data, 2020-2025; excludes cancelled and diverted flights.
Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Every figure on PlainFlights is rendered directly from BTS On-Time Performance data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates this airline's on-time performance and delay-cause breakdown, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.