Flight profile · Delta Air Lines
DL3186
Charlotte (CLT) to Atlanta (ATL) · scheduled 6:00 AM – 7:19 AM
How DL3186 performs
621 operations, June 2024 – August 2026.
Between its first and last recorded date on CLT → ATL, DL3186 averaged about 5 operations a week (621 in 816 days, cancelled ones included).
DL3186 arrived on time 94.4% of the time, against 79.8% for all CLT → ATL flights, so this departure is 14.6 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against Delta Air Lines’ own flights on this route it is 9.4 points better.
DL3186’s scheduled departure has moved during the period FlyerIntel has on file: it typically left around 6:00 AM earlier on, and around 5:30 AM more recently — a 30-minute shift, not the few minutes of day-to-day rounding every published schedule carries. Confirm the current departure time before booking around an older listing.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 621 operations, June 2024 – August 2026 · If DL3186 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
What stands out
How DL3186 compares to other flight numbers, not just to itself.
This flight stays close to typical even on its worst days, a smaller gap than 98% of 12,358 comparable flight numbers.
A typical arrival is 10 min early, and the worst tenth are only 16 minutes worse than that.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · June 2024 – August 2026 · The one thing about this specific departure that ranks most extreme against every other published flight number, out of everything FlyerIntel checks — shown only when something clears a real statistical bar, not for every flight.
Where DL3186 is right now
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Against the rest of the route
| Flight or route | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL3186 | 94.4% | 2.58% | -10 min | 1.7% | 621 |
| Delta Air Lines on CLT → ATL | 85.0% | 0.93% | -11 min | 5.8% | 8,985 |
| All CLT → ATL flights | 79.8% | 1.40% | -8 min | 7.5% | 15,622 |
DL3186 has cancelled 2.58% of its scheduled departures (16 of 621), against 1.40% for all CLT → ATL flights — this specific departure cancels 1.2 percentage points more often than the route as a whole. Different flight numbers on the same route can carry different aircraft, crews and schedules, so this is a fact about DL3186 specifically, not about the route it flies.
1.7% of DL3186’s arrivals were an hour or more late, against 7.5% across CLT → ATL, 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 DL3186 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DL3186 on CLT → ATL. 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 DL3186 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
DL3186 is usually the aircraft’s first flight of the day: the schedule gives it a median of 6.8 hours on the ground at CLT, so its “inbound” is mostly the aircraft’s arrival the evening before.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, DL3186 pushed back an average of 5 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 2 minutes late.
Matched by tail number to the aircraft’s previous flight into CLT: 596 of 605 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 | Left 15+ late after a late inbound | Left 15+ late after an on-time inbound |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL3186 | 23% | 8% | 5% |
| Network, same turn | 29% | 12% | 9% |
A night on the ground absorbs most of a late arrival, so a late inbound matters far less here than on a same-day turn.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 6 hours or more, usually overnight. How often DL3186’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often DL3186 left 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering June 2024 – August 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves CLT late, does that still matter by the time it reaches ATL?
DL3186 pushes back an average of 2.5 minutes late and reaches the gate at ATL an average of 5.0 minutes early. The 7.5 minutes between those two figures are slack the published schedule already carries, so on average a late pushback on this flight is made up before the gate. Its 18.9 minutes on the taxiways at CLT is about what any departure from the airport in that hour spends.
On arrival at ATL, DL3186 spends 6.4 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 3.2 minutes shorter than a typical ATL arrival (9.6 min).
Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block; the hourly comparison is 9,724 CLT departures. Taxi-in is landing to gate, set against 1,039,387 arrivals at ATL. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · June 2024 – August 2026
The hour it leaves CLT
DL3186 has one departure time, 6:00 AM, so this is what that hour at CLT is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 9,724 departures from CLT are scheduled in the 6 AM–7 AM hour over the period, against 633,368 across the whole day.
DL3186 is scheduled out of CLT at 6:00 AM, in the 6 AM–7 AM bank. Departures from CLT in that hour arrive on time 91.3% of the time against 74.6% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 16.7 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
Both airport figures cover every destination from CLT, 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 DL3186 has flown
Carriers reassign flight numbers. DL3186 also served these 3 other city pairs in the period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| MEM→ATL Memphis to Atlanta | June 8, 2025 – December 19, 2025 | 167 | 92.8% |
| JFK→STT New York to Charlotte Amalie | November 8, 2025 | 1 | — |
| ATL→MEM Atlanta to Memphis | June 8, 2025 – October 5, 2025 | 114 | 94.7% |
The figures above describe only CLT → ATL, the route DL3186 flies now.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
6 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 621 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering June 2024 – August 2026
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 621 records of DL3186 operating CLT → ATL, 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