Flight profile · Delta Air Lines
DL781
New York (JFK) to Las Vegas (LAS) · scheduled 9:15 PM – 12:17 AM
How DL781 performs
602 operations, January 2024 – August 2026.
Between its first and last recorded date on JFK → LAS, DL781 averaged about 4 operations a week (602 in 962 days, cancelled ones included).
DL781 arrived on time 72.8% of the time, against 79.6% for all JFK → LAS flights, so this departure is 6.8 percentage points worse than the route as a whole. Against Delta Air Lines’ own flights on this route it is 8.0 points worse.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 602 operations, January 2024 – August 2026 · If DL781 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where DL781 is right now
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Against the rest of the route
| Flight or route | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL781 | 72.8% | 1.83% | -7 min | 10.8% | 602 |
| Delta Air Lines on JFK → LAS | 80.8% | 1.39% | -12 min | 6.5% | 5,405 |
| All JFK → LAS flights | 79.6% | 1.57% | -12 min | 7.5% | 11,232 |
DL781 cancelled 11 of 602 operations (1.83%), close to the 1.57% for JFK → LAS.
10.8% of DL781’s arrivals were an hour or more late, against 7.5% across JFK → LAS, so the long delays are more common on this number than on the route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · January 2024 – August 2026
Why DL781 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DL781 on JFK → LAS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering January 2024 – August 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies DL781 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
The aircraft flying DL781 came in 15 or more minutes late on 18% 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 JFK: 540 of 592 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 |
|---|---|
| DL781 | 18% |
| Network, same turn | 17% |
71 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 DL781’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is about the same as 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 January 2024 – August 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves JFK late, does that still matter by the time it reaches LAS?
DL781 pushes back an average of 14.1 minutes late and reaches the gate at LAS an average of 3.7 minutes late. The 10.4 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 32.2 minutes on the taxiways at JFK, 1.9 minutes longer than a typical JFK departure in the same hour.
On arrival at LAS, DL781 spends 12.5 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 4.9 minutes longer than a typical LAS arrival (7.7 min).
Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block; the hourly comparison is 17,742 JFK departures. Taxi-in is landing to gate, set against 583,484 arrivals at LAS. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · January 2024 – August 2026
The hour it leaves JFK
DL781 has one departure time, 9:15 PM, so this is what that hour at JFK is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 17,742 departures from JFK are scheduled in the 9 PM–10 PM hour over the period, against 360,775 across the whole day.
DL781 is scheduled out of JFK at 9:15 PM, in the 9 PM–10 PM bank. Departures from JFK in that hour arrive on time 68.0% of the time against 76.7% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 8.8 points worse before anything about this particular flight is considered.
Both airport figures cover every destination from JFK, 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 · January 2024 – August 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
Other routes DL781 has flown
Carriers reassign flight numbers. DL781 also served these 12 other city pairs in the period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATL→BTR Atlanta to Baton Rouge | December 21, 2025 – January 4, 2026 | 13 | — |
| BTR→ATL Baton Rouge to Atlanta | December 21, 2025 – January 4, 2026 | 13 | — |
| LGA→ATL New York to Atlanta | November 15, 2025 – December 13, 2025 | 4 | — |
| LAS→JFK Las Vegas to New York | June 8, 2024 – September 7, 2024 | 40 | — |
| SEA→ANC Seattle to Anchorage | May 7, 2024 – June 6, 2024 | 31 | — |
| RDU→BOS Raleigh–Durham to Boston | March 16, 2024 – April 6, 2024 | 4 | — |
| SAN→ATL San Diego to Atlanta | March 9, 2024 | 1 | — |
| MSP→BIS Minneapolis to Bismarck | January 8, 2024 – March 8, 2024 | 50 | — |
| CVG→ATL Cincinnati / Covington to Atlanta | December 24, 2023 – January 7, 2024 | 3 | — |
| MIA→LGA Miami to New York | November 5, 2023 – December 15, 2023 | 35 | — |
| ATL→DCA Atlanta to Washington | July 1, 2023 – September 4, 2023 | 65 | — |
| DCA→ATL Washington to Atlanta | July 1, 2023 – September 4, 2023 | 64 | — |
The figures above describe only JFK → LAS, the route DL781 flies now.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
61 min late
against a median of 7 min early
DL781 has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 7 min early, but the worst tenth are 68 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.
Percentiles over 602 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering January 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B6411 | JetBlue | 89.8% | 15 min early | 1,013 |
| B6511 | JetBlue | 87.1% | 16 min early | 655 |
| DL806 | Delta Air Lines | 78.0% | 10 min early | 783 |
| DL781 this flight | Delta Air Lines | 72.8% | 7 min early | 602 |
| B61211 | JetBlue | 70.8% | 9 min early | 610 |
| B6711 | JetBlue | 67.1% | 3 min early | 909 |
Among all 6 departures on this route with at least 600 operations, DL781 has the 4th highest on-time rate, 17.0 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 602 records of DL781 operating JFK → LAS, 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