Route profile
ATL→ILM
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Atlanta to Wilmington, 377 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 84% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,536 flights. How this is calculated
ATL → ILM arrives on time 84.8% of the time; the return trip, ILM → ATL, arrives on time 87.5% of the time, a 2.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ATL → ILM spends 21.6 minutes on the ground on a 377-mile trip: 15.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ATL and 6.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at ILM.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 98% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Endeavor Air (85.0% on time) and Delta Air Lines (84.7%) are close together here.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where ATL to ILM differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
ATL to ILM is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 10 PM: 84.1% arrive on time, 16.4 points ahead of the 67.7% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.5 points.
ATL to ILM holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 83.8% on time to their 76.0%, a 7.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.6 points.
February is kinder to ATL to ILM than to routes of similar length: 91.6% on time against 81.5%, 10.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.2 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on ATL to ILM than on its routes of similar length: 84.7% on time here, 80.1% there, 4.6 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.2 points.
ATL to ILM against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 84.1% | routes of similar length | 67.7% | +16.4 pts | 623 here, 38,158 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 83.8% | routes of similar length | 76.0% | +7.8 pts | 500 here, 234,043 there |
| Month: February | 91.6% | routes of similar length | 81.5% | +10.1 pts | 154 here, 108,703 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 84.7% | routes of similar length | 80.1% | +4.6 pts | 2,668 here, 210,029 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 377 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
30 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 3,536 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ILM after arriving from ATL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 27% | High risk |
| 45 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 9.8% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 2.9% | 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 0.96% of the time and diverts 0.08% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,499 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 30 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,536 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ATL → ILM flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 95.2% of the time, against 78.3% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 16.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 95.2% on time from 292 flights
- 9 AM: 91.2% on time from 504 flights
- 10 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 85.8% on time from 503 flights
- 1 PM: 83.9% on time from 196 flights
- 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 79.3% on time from 525 flights
- 4 PM: 69.1% on time from 139 flights
- 5 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 79.1% on time from 328 flights
- 10 PM: 84.1% on time from 638 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why ATL → ILM runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
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 ATL → ILM. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 2,698 | 84.7% | 1.00% | -9 min | 5.7% |
| Endeavor Air | 795 | 85.0% | 0.75% | -7 min | 4.1% |
Delta Air Lines flew 77.2% of the 3,493 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL3070 Delta Air Lines | 9:20 PM | 660 | 79.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 87.7%
- Feb: 91.6%
- Mar: 85.4%
- Apr: 86.3%
- May: 78.8%
- Jun: 80.2%
- Jul: 78.5%
- Aug: 84.4%
- Sep: 89.0%
- Oct: 92.0%
- Nov: 88.9%
- Dec: 81.7%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 13.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 87.5% from 122 flights
- August 2023: 79.2% from 124 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (113)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (118)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (91)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (95)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (94)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (87)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (117)
- July 2024: 72.6% from 122 flights
- August 2024: 90.2% from 123 flights
- September 2024: too few flights to score (118)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (118)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (17)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (14)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (51)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (61)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (66)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (104)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (110)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (95)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (54)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (55)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (63)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (76)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (112)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (116)
- July 2026: 77.3% from 120 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 84.3% against 82.3% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,536 ATL → ILM 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
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed