ATL → BOS Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · ATLNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 09:52 UTC

Atlanta airport profile →

Destination · BOSNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 09:54 UTC

Boston airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

62/ 100Good

Better than 39% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 15,476 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

76.6%

11,684 of 15,256

Cancellation rate

1.31%

203 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-5 min

Average 8.5 min

Severe delays

8.2%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

67 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

15,476

4 carriers

ATL → BOS arrives on time 76.6% of the time; the return trip, BOS → ATL, arrives on time 78.5% of the time.

ATL → BOS spends 27.1 minutes on the ground on a 946-mile trip: 17.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ATL and 9.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at BOS.

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

Why ATL → BOS flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

ATL → BOS cancelled 203 of 15,476 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 76. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 53.2% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 143 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather53.2%

Airline34.5%

Air traffic12.3%

Security0.0%

Of 203 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 143

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

108 cancellations, 53.2% of the total.

The airline1 in 221

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

70 cancellations, 34.5% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 619

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

25 cancellations, 12.3% of the total.

Security—

A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.

0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.

Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.

203 coded cancellations were recorded on ATL → BOS; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

50 min late

against a median of 5 min early

Arrived an hour or more late8.2%

Typical delay when late67 min

Cancelled1.31%

Landed somewhere else0.11%

Percentiles over 15,476 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at BOS after arriving from ATL.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, ATL → BOS arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	38%	Likely to miss
45 min	23%	High risk
60 min	15%	High risk
90 min	8.1%	Some risk
120 min	4.6%	Low risk

This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.31% of the time and diverts 0.11% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 15,256 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.

The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 50 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 15,476 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

ATL → BOS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.7% of the time, against 68.1% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 20.6 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (ATL).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 7.9 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 3.2 points.

On-time arrival rate for ATL to BOS by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM
9 PM–10 PM
10 PM–11 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

60–64
65–69
70–74
75–79
80–84
85–89
90–94

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures before 7 AM and after 11 PM (717 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for ATL to BOS. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
7 AM–8 AM	89.7% on time191 flights	86.8% on time169 flights	89.2% on time179 flights	87.2% on time188 flights	90.2% on time195 flights	92.4% on time147 flights	84.4% on time184 flights
8 AM–9 AM	86.9% on time149 flights	90.7% on time154 flights	92.7% on time151 flights	88.0% on time160 flights	91.9% on time151 flights	91.8% on time124 flights	90.3% on time156 flights
9 AM–10 AM	79.6% on time139 flights	77.9% on time132 flights	91.9% on time135 flights	88.1% on time134 flights	80.6% on time135 flights	84.7% on time133 flights	83.3% on time140 flights
10 AM–11 AM	79.0% on time121 flights	117 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score	78.2% on time121 flights	108 flights, too few to score	112 flights, too few to score
11 AM–12 PM	76.7% on time180 flights	84.9% on time172 flights	88.6% on time176 flights	76.3% on time191 flights	83.2% on time183 flights	79.9% on time180 flights	79.2% on time181 flights
12 PM–1 PM	71.5% on time209 flights	77.9% on time200 flights	72.8% on time202 flights	68.0% on time203 flights	73.8% on time210 flights	78.7% on time151 flights	72.8% on time198 flights
1 PM–2 PM	113 flights, too few to score	115 flights, too few to score	115 flights, too few to score	118 flights, too few to score	113 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score	117 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	68.2% on time149 flights	74.3% on time149 flights	79.7% on time148 flights	71.4% on time154 flights	70.8% on time156 flights	80.8% on time131 flights	63.1% on time151 flights
3 PM–4 PM	84 flights, too few to score	80 flights, too few to score	80 flights, too few to score	81 flights, too few to score	78 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score	84 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	61.9% on time128 flights	94 flights, too few to score	93 flights, too few to score	66.4% on time129 flights	62.5% on time131 flights	92 flights, too few to score	59.7% on time126 flights
5 PM–6 PM	108 flights, too few to score	107 flights, too few to score	116 flights, too few to score	107 flights, too few to score	107 flights, too few to score	107 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score
6 PM–7 PM	102 flights, too few to score	81 flights, too few to score	88 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score	107 flights, too few to score	84 flights, too few to score	101 flights, too few to score
7 PM–8 PM	68.1% on time140 flights	77.6% on time127 flights	73.5% on time135 flights	69.4% on time137 flights	68.5% on time133 flights	102 flights, too few to score	63.4% on time137 flights
8 PM–9 PM	71.3% on time126 flights	104 flights, too few to score	92 flights, too few to score	61.9% on time121 flights	63.9% on time123 flights	69.7% on time124 flights	59.5% on time130 flights
9 PM–10 PM	52 flights, too few to score	43 flights, too few to score	39 flights, too few to score	49 flights, too few to score	47 flights, too few to score	37 flights, too few to score	47 flights, too few to score
10 PM–11 PM	77.0% on time204 flights	79.9% on time194 flights	80.3% on time193 flights	69.7% on time204 flights	68.6% on time205 flights	80.0% on time200 flights	68.4% on time202 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM88.7%

9 AM–12 PM82.4%

12–3 PM73.2%

3–6 PM68.1%

6–9 PM68.3%

9 PM–5 AM73.6%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why ATL → BOS runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

The airline38.9%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Air traffic control29.0%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Late-arriving aircraft28.2%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Weather3.8%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

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

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of ATL to BOS: 3.3 times the normal rate at ATL and 3.9 times at BOS. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: ATL 3.4% against 1.0%, BOS 5.3% against 1.4%. Flights that did leave BOS in bad weather arrived on time 65.1% of the time, against 79.7% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from ATL and BOS in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	ATL	BOS
Cancelled in bad weather	3.4%	5.3%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.0%	1.4%
Arrived on time, bad weather	66.5%	65.1%
Arrived on time, normal hours	80.2%	79.7%
Departures in bad weather	105,854	60,840

Spirit Airlines (3.9% cancelled against 3.2% for the other carriers at ATL) and Frontier Airlines (5.0% cancelled against 3.8% for the other carriers at ATL) cancelled more departures from ATL in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly better.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at ATL

All departures from ATL

Cancellation rates in bad weather at ATL for the airlines that fly ATL to BOS, against the other carriers at ATL in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
Delta Air Lines	73,919	3.5%about level	3.6%
Spirit Airlines	2,965	3.9%above the others	3.2%
JetBlue	977	4.0%about level	3.3%
Frontier Airlines	4,928	5.0%above the others	3.8%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from ATL and BOS, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from ATL on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: ATL (airlines), BOS, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
Delta Air Lines	11,240	78.5%	1.03%	-6 min	6.9%
JetBlue	2,656	72.2%	2.22%	-4 min	12.5%
Spirit Airlines	889	73.6%	0.90%	-4 min	9.7%
Frontier Airlines	691	65.0%	2.89%	0 min	11.8%

Delta Air Lines flew 72.6% of the 15,476 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.89% of its flights here against 0.90% for Spirit Airlines.

Delta Air Lines arrived on time 13.5 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
DL865 Delta Air Lines	10:25 PM	1,119	78.8%
DL726 Delta Air Lines	1:45 PM	1,096	74.1%
DL855 Delta Air Lines	10:00 AM	1,096	87.9%
DL300 Delta Air Lines	5:55 PM	1,050	72.0%
DL862 Delta Air Lines	11:05 AM	999	83.8%
B6896 JetBlue	10:35 AM	973	70.8%
DL350 Delta Air Lines	12:15 PM	966	76.3%
DL821 Delta Air Lines	4:00 PM	936	69.0%
DL518 Delta Air Lines	7:55 PM	896	69.2%
DL987 Delta Air Lines	7:00 AM	625	90.9%

DL987 (7:00 AM) arrived on time 90.9% of the time, 21.9 points more often than DL821 (4:00 PM) at 69.0%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon75.0%

Tue79.5%

Wed80.9%

Thu74.6%

Fri74.6%

Sat80.4%

Sun72.0%

Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.9 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 20.6 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 73.9% against 75.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.6 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 15,476 ATL → BOS flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.

Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

ATL airport BOS airport Return direction BOS → ATL

ATL→BOS

Right now

Route reliability

Why ATL → BOS flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why ATL → BOS runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at ATL

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology