UA2081

UA2081 arrived on time 66.3% of the time, against 80.0% for all IAD → ATL flights, so this departure is 13.7 percentage points worse than the route as a whole. Against United Airlines’ own flights on this route it is 13.3 points worse.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 884 operations, July 2023 – July 2026 · If UA2081 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.

This flight runs unusually far behind the carrier's own average on this route, worse than 93% of 11,589 comparable flight numbers.

66.3% on time for this specific departure, against 79.6% for the same carrier's other flights on this route.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 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.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for UA2081 on IAD → ATL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, UA2081 pushed back an average of 49 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 11 minutes late.

Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into IAD just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 792 of 878 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.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

On arrival at ATL, UA2081 spends 12.1 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 2.6 minutes longer 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 37,767 departures from IAD scheduled in the clock hour UA2081 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 UA2081’s own. More on taxi time.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026

UA2081 is scheduled out of IAD at 5:50 PM, in the 5 PM–6 PM bank. Departures from IAD in that hour arrive on time 72.1% of the time against 81.0% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 8.9 points worse before anything about this particular flight is considered.

The two airport figures cover every departure from IAD 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 · July 2023 – July 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Days with fewer than 120 operations are not scored.

Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route UA2081 currently operates. Blending them would produce an average of two different flights.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

Every departure listed carries at least 600 operations, so the comparison is between figures that mean something. UA2081 is placed in the same ordering rather than left out of it; the rows around it are the most punctual departures on the route, not all of them, so this is a comparison and not a rank. Schedules change; confirm the departure still operates before booking around this.

• UA2634 ATL→IAD Return trip, ATL to IAD, departs 7:32 PM, on time 76.8%
• UA632 ATL→IAD Return trip, ATL to IAD, departs 9:25 AM, on time 88.3%
• UA1305 DEN→ATL United Airlines flight into ATL, DEN to ATL, departs 5:50 PM, on time 70.8%