Flight profile · Delta Air Lines
DL721
Santa Ana (SNA) to Atlanta (ATL) · scheduled 6:45 AM – 1:53 PM
How DL721 performs
785 operations, June 2024 – July 2026.
DL721 arrived on time 83.7% of the time, against 82.4% for all SNA → ATL flights, so this departure is 1.3 percentage points better than the route as a whole. Against Delta Air Lines’ own flights on this route it is 1.3 points better.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 785 operations, June 2024 – July 2026 · If DL721 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where DL721 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL721 | 83.7% | 1.02% | -3 min | 6.6% | 785 |
| Delta Air Lines on SNA → ATL | 82.4% | 0.94% | -8 min | 6.7% | 3,208 |
| All SNA → ATL flights | 82.4% | 0.94% | -8 min | 6.7% | 3,208 |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · June 2024 – July 2026
Why DL721 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 DL721 on SNA → ATL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering June 2024 – July 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies DL721 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
DL721 is usually the aircraft’s first flight of the day: the schedule gives it a median of 8.6 hours on the ground at SNA, so its “inbound” is mostly the aircraft’s arrival the evening before.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, DL721 pushed back an average of 9 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 8 minutes late.
Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into SNA just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 655 of 777 departures in all. A departure is left out when that flight is unknown, was cancelled or diverted, or the aircraft had sat for more than 12 hours. A flight the airline cancelled never left and is not in the count, and one flown by a substitute aircraft is matched to the aircraft that flew it, not to the one first planned.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL721 | 23% | 12% | 12% |
| Network, same turn | 29% | 12% | 9% |
A night on the ground absorbs most of a late arrival, so a late inbound matters far less on a turn this long than on a same-day one.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 6 hours or more, usually overnight. How often DL721’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often DL721 left 15 or more minutes late is about the same as the network’s.
More: Which Flight Numbers Pay for a Late Aircraft lists the flight numbers that pass a late aircraft on.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering June 2024 – July 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves SNA late, does that still matter by the time it reaches ATL?
DL721 pushes back an average of 14.1 minutes late and reaches the gate at ATL an average of 10.6 minutes late. The 3.5 minutes between those two figures are slack the published schedule already carries, which is why a late pushback on this flight does not reliably become a late arrival. It spends 27.0 minutes on the taxiways at SNA, 1.2 minutes longer than a typical SNA departure in the same hour.
On arrival at ATL, DL721 spends 7.6 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 1.9 minutes shorter than a typical ATL arrival (9.6 min).
Departure delay is averaged over every pushback and arrival delay over every completed arrival, so the two counts differ by the flights that never reached ATL. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 10,151 departures from SNA scheduled in the clock hour DL721 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at ATL (1,012,161 flights), not just DL721’s own. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · June 2024 – July 2026
The hour it leaves SNA
Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. DL721 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 10,151 departures from SNA are scheduled in the 6 AM–7 AM hour over the period, against 137,357 across the whole day.
DL721 is scheduled out of SNA at 6:45 AM, in the 6 AM–7 AM bank. Departures from SNA in that hour arrive on time 92.6% of the time against 82.2% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 10.4 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
The two airport figures cover every departure from SNA to every destination, so they describe the slot rather than this journey — the like-for-like comparison against the route is above. Hours are scheduled local, and a number whose schedule moved between banks inside the period has no single hour and is not described here at all. Why the hour matters.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · June 2024 – July 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
Other routes DL721 has flown
A flight number is a slot in a schedule, and carriers reassign it. These are the other city pairs this number served in the analysis period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT→DTW San Antonio to Detroit | May 9, 2024 – June 6, 2024 | 16 | — |
| GRR→MSP Grand Rapids to Minneapolis | May 11, 2024 – June 1, 2024 | 5 | — |
| MSP→GRR Minneapolis to Grand Rapids | May 11, 2024 – June 1, 2024 | 5 | — |
| FLL→DTW Fort Lauderdale to Detroit | March 10, 2024 – May 6, 2024 | 58 | — |
| PHL→MSP Philadelphia to Minneapolis | January 8, 2024 – March 9, 2024 | 62 | — |
| ATL→PBI Atlanta to West Palm Beach | December 16–30, 2023 | 13 | — |
| PBI→ATL West Palm Beach to Atlanta | December 17–30, 2023 | 12 | — |
| ATL→PHX Atlanta to Phoenix | November 13, 2023 – December 15, 2023 | 33 | — |
| PHX→ATL Phoenix to Atlanta | November 13, 2023 – December 15, 2023 | 33 | — |
| MSP→ANC Minneapolis to Anchorage | September 5, 2023 – November 4, 2023 | 61 | — |
| ANC→MSP Anchorage to Minneapolis | September 5, 2023 – November 4, 2023 | 61 | — |
| ATL→DEN Atlanta to Denver | July 1, 2023 – September 4, 2023 | 56 | — |
| DEN→ATL Denver to Atlanta | July 1, 2023 – September 4, 2023 | 56 | — |
Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route DL721 currently operates. Blending them would produce an average of two different flights.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
28 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 785 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering June 2024 – July 2026
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 785 records of DL721 operating SNA → 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 excluded from the on-time rate and reported separately. Flight numbers are resolved as carrier plus number plus route, because the same number serves different routes over time.
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
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