Flight profile · Delta Air Lines
DL2078
Minneapolis (MSP) to San Francisco (SFO) · scheduled 9:05 AM – 11:32 AM
How DL2078 performs
615 operations, June 2024 – August 2026.
Between its first and last recorded date on MSP → SFO, DL2078 averaged about 5 operations a week (615 in 816 days, cancelled ones included).
DL2078 arrived on time 71.9% of the time, against 75.0% for all MSP → SFO flights, so this departure is 3.1 percentage points worse than the route as a whole. Against Delta Air Lines’ own flights on this route it is 2.6 points worse.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 615 operations, June 2024 – August 2026 · If DL2078 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where DL2078 is right now
A live reading, only if you ask for it. It is not part of the reliability record above.
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Against the rest of the route
| Flight or route | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL2078 | 71.9% | 0.98% | -4 min | 5.7% | 615 |
| Delta Air Lines on MSP → SFO | 74.5% | 0.57% | -5 min | 6.7% | 4,705 |
| All MSP → SFO flights | 75.0% | 0.63% | -5 min | 7.2% | 6,166 |
DL2078 cancelled 6 of 615 operations (0.98%), close to the 0.63% for MSP → SFO.
5.7% of DL2078’s arrivals were an hour or more late, against 7.2% across MSP → SFO, so the long delays are less common on this number than on the route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · June 2024 – August 2026
Why DL2078 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DL2078 on MSP → SFO. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering June 2024 – August 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies DL2078 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
The aircraft flying DL2078 came in 15 or more minutes late on 8% of the departures where its previous flight is known. There are not enough departures in both groups to say how the flight left after a late one and after an on-time one.
Matched by tail number to the aircraft’s previous flight into MSP: 545 of 609 departures. Unknown, cancelled or diverted inbounds and gaps over 12 hours are left out.
Against the network at the same turn length
| Share of departures | Inbound landed 15+ late |
|---|---|
| DL2078 | 8% |
| Network, same turn | 17% |
69 scheduled minutes is enough to clean and board when the aircraft is on time, with little to spare when it is not.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 60 to 89 minutes. How often DL2078’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s. There are not enough departures in both groups to compare how it left.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering June 2024 – August 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves MSP late, does that still matter by the time it reaches SFO?
DL2078 pushes back an average of 8.4 minutes late and reaches the gate at SFO an average of 2.6 minutes late. The 5.8 minutes between those two figures are slack the published schedule already carries, so a late pushback is partly, not fully, made up before the gate. It spends 21.8 minutes on the taxiways at MSP, 1.8 minutes longer than a typical MSP departure in the same hour.
On arrival at SFO, DL2078 spends 8.2 min taxiing from touchdown to the gate — ground time a connecting passenger sits through before they can even leave the aircraft, on top of however late the flight itself ran. That is about what any arrival at SFO spends on the ground before reaching the gate.
Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block; the hourly comparison is 23,578 MSP departures. Taxi-in is landing to gate, set against 449,639 arrivals at SFO. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · June 2024 – August 2026
The hour it leaves MSP
DL2078 has one departure time, 9:05 AM, so this is what that hour at MSP is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 23,578 departures from MSP are scheduled in the 9 AM–10 AM hour over the period, against 380,472 across the whole day.
DL2078 is scheduled out of MSP at 9:05 AM, in the 9 AM–10 AM bank. Departures from MSP in that hour arrive on time 86.3% of the time against 81.1% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 5.2 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
Both airport figures cover every destination from MSP, so they describe the slot, not this journey; the route comparison is above. Why the hour matters.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · June 2024 – August 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
Other routes DL2078 has flown
Carriers reassign flight numbers. DL2078 also served these 9 other city pairs in the period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| SFO→MSP San Francisco to Minneapolis | July 8, 2024 – August 31, 2026 | 583 | 72.7% |
| ATL→CAE Atlanta to Columbia | January 4, 2026 | 1 | — |
| ATL→MEM Atlanta to Memphis | July 7, 2025 – December 19, 2025 | 157 | 87.7% |
| MCI→ATL Kansas City to Atlanta | July 1, 2023 – June 6, 2024 | 168 | 80.2% |
| ATL→MCI Atlanta to Kansas City | July 1, 2023 – June 6, 2024 | 165 | 77.0% |
| LAX→MSP Los Angeles to Minneapolis | April 11, 2024 – May 6, 2024 | 16 | — |
| LGA→SRQ New York to Sarasota/Bradenton | January 8, 2024 – April 8, 2024 | 88 | — |
| JAX→JFK Jacksonville to New York | January 1–7, 2024 | 7 | — |
| GEG→SEA Spokane to Seattle | December 10–15, 2023 | 6 | — |
The figures above describe only MSP → SFO, the route DL2078 flies now.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
44 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 615 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering June 2024 – August 2026
Other flights on this route
Same airports, same journey, different odds of arriving on time.
| Flight | Airline | On time | Median arrival | Operations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL2074 | Delta Air Lines | 75.4% | 7 min early | 815 |
| DL756 | Delta Air Lines | 74.5% | 3 min early | 766 |
| DL2078 this flight | Delta Air Lines | 71.9% | 4 min early | 615 |
Among all 3 departures on this route with at least 600 operations, DL2078 has the lowest on-time rate, 3.5 points behind the best. Every departure here has at least 600 operations; the other rows are the most punctual on the route, not all of them.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 615 records of DL2078 operating MSP → SFO, published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after schedule; cancelled and diverted flights are reported separately, not in the on-time rate.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: Most and Least Reliable Flight Numbers · The Delay You Inherit · Making Up Time in the Air
Analysis last recomputed