Route profile
ATL→PHL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Atlanta to Philadelphia, 666 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 21% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 17,909 flights. How this is calculated
ATL → PHL arrives on time 74.7% of the time; the return trip, PHL → ATL, arrives on time 78.5% of the time, a 3.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ATL → PHL spends 26.0 minutes on the ground on a 666-mile trip: 18.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ATL and 7.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at PHL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 99% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Republic Airways arrived on time 87.7% of the time, against 62.0% for Frontier Airlines, flying the exact same route.
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.
Why ATL → PHL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
ATL → PHL cancelled 335 of 17,909 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 53. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 54.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 98 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 335 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
182 cancellations, 54.3% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
134 cancellations, 40.0% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
19 cancellations, 5.7% of the total.
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.
335 coded cancellations were recorded on ATL → PHL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
56 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 17,909 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PHL after arriving from ATL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 43% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.4% | Some 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 1.87% of the time and diverts 0.09% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 17,557 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 56 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 17,909 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ATL → PHL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.4% of the time, against 63.9% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 23.5 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 10.0 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 3.6 points.
| Hour | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
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On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time
- 50–59
- 60–69
- 70–79
- 80–89
- 90–99
- 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 (1,034 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.
View as tableHide table
| Hour | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 AM–8 AM | 85.9% on time261 flights | 88.1% on time263 flights | 86.8% on time274 flights | 86.3% on time262 flights | 83.1% on time265 flights | 90.4% on time190 flights | 88.4% on time231 flights |
| 8 AM–9 AM | 107 flights, too few to score | 119 flights, too few to score | 99 flights, too few to score | 117 flights, too few to score | 118 flights, too few to score | 85.8% on time146 flights | 119 flights, too few to score |
| 9 AM–10 AM | 75.4% on time134 flights | 84.9% on time122 flights | 88.0% on time125 flights | 82.7% on time141 flights | 77.5% on time143 flights | 83.9% on time121 flights | 79.9% on time145 flights |
| 10 AM–11 AM | 84.9% on time209 flights | 79.4% on time156 flights | 85.3% on time150 flights | 86.1% on time194 flights | 79.1% on time193 flights | 76.6% on time145 flights | 79.5% on time178 flights |
| 11 AM–12 PM | 77.5% on time141 flights | 86.5% on time173 flights | 86.4% on time155 flights | 80.6% on time139 flights | 82.2% on time137 flights | 97 flights, too few to score | 75.4% on time141 flights |
| 12 PM–1 PM | 80.4% on time181 flights | 85.1% on time183 flights | 80.8% on time199 flights | 84.4% on time182 flights | 79.7% on time183 flights | 82.4% on time126 flights | 86.4% on time181 flights |
| 1 PM–2 PM | 81.7% on time122 flights | 85.1% on time123 flights | 88.0% on time125 flights | 81.9% on time127 flights | 79.1% on time129 flights | 109 flights, too few to score | 78.6% on time131 flights |
| 2 PM–3 PM | 71.8% on time121 flights | 73.4% on time126 flights | 84.8% on time126 flights | 70.5% on time133 flights | 112 flights, too few to score | 72.2% on time136 flights | 64.1% on time134 flights |
| 3 PM–4 PM | 58.1% on time239 flights | 70.0% on time247 flights | 72.4% on time247 flights | 58.9% on time252 flights | 63.0% on time246 flights | 64.1% on time201 flights | 58.6% on time258 flights |
| 4 PM–5 PM | 61.5% on time186 flights | 111 flights, too few to score | 116 flights, too few to score | 60.7% on time175 flights | 66.5% on time170 flights | 116 flights, too few to score | 52.5% on time183 flights |
| 5 PM–6 PM | 66.7% on time130 flights | 78 flights, too few to score | 95 flights, too few to score | 108 flights, too few to score | 64.7% on time139 flights | 71.4% on time138 flights | 97 flights, too few to score |
| 6 PM–7 PM | 65.9% on time248 flights | 75.0% on time201 flights | 68.9% on time214 flights | 66.8% on time233 flights | 64.0% on time246 flights | 63.6% on time156 flights | 59.3% on time251 flights |
| 7 PM–8 PM | 47 flights, too few to score | 44 flights, too few to score | 38 flights, too few to score | 50 flights, too few to score | 50 flights, too few to score | 75 flights, too few to score | 69 flights, too few to score |
| 8 PM–9 PM | 63.7% on time146 flights | 72.9% on time140 flights | 80.8% on time130 flights | 60.3% on time147 flights | 61.7% on time136 flights | 73 flights, too few to score | 65.9% on time130 flights |
| 9 PM–10 PM | 75 flights, too few to score | 37 flights, too few to score | 42 flights, too few to score | 63 flights, too few to score | 70 flights, too few to score | 42 flights, too few to score | 62 flights, too few to score |
| 10 PM–11 PM | 61.5% on time211 flights | 76.6% on time174 flights | 77.8% on time167 flights | 59.3% on time221 flights | 67.8% on time221 flights | 72.3% on time194 flights | 57.5% on time241 flights |
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 82.1% on time from 289 flights
- 6 AM: 92.3% on time from 630 flights
- 7 AM: 86.8% on time from 1,746 flights
- 8 AM: 86.5% on time from 825 flights
- 9 AM: 81.6% on time from 931 flights
- 10 AM: 81.8% on time from 1,225 flights
- 11 AM: 82.1% on time from 983 flights
- 12 PM: 82.7% on time from 1,235 flights
- 1 PM: 82.2% on time from 866 flights
- 2 PM: 72.7% on time from 888 flights
- 3 PM: 63.6% on time from 1,690 flights
- 4 PM: 62.4% on time from 1,057 flights
- 5 PM: 68.0% on time from 785 flights
- 6 PM: 66.1% on time from 1,549 flights
- 7 PM: 62.3% on time from 373 flights
- 8 PM: 68.1% on time from 902 flights
- 9 PM: 53.0% on time from 391 flights
- 10 PM: 66.8% on time from 1,429 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why ATL → PHL runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for ATL → PHL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on ATL → PHL, at 44.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 87.4% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 63.9%.
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 PHL: 3.3 times the normal rate at ATL and 4.3 times at PHL. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: ATL 3.4% against 1.0%, PHL 6.5% against 1.5%. Flights that did leave PHL in bad weather arrived on time 64.3% of the time, against 78.2% in normal hours.
Bad weather and normal hours at the airports
Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026| Departures from | ATL | PHL |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 3.4% | 6.5% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.0% | 1.5% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 66.5% | 64.3% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 80.2% | 78.2% |
| Departures in bad weather | 105,854 | 32,038 |
Of the carriers on this route, Southwest Airlines (2.1% cancelled against 3.1% for the other carriers at ATL) cancelled the fewest departures from ATL in bad weather and PSA Airlines (7.7% cancelled against 3.9% for the other carriers at ATL) the most.
This route’s airlines in bad weather at ATL
All departures from ATL| Airline | Bad-weather departures | Cancelled | Other carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 8,953 | 2.1%below the others | 3.1% |
| American Airlines | 2,658 | 2.4%below the others | 3.4% |
| Delta Air Lines | 73,919 | 3.5%about level | 3.6% |
| Republic Airways | 598 | 4.2%about level | 3.9% |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,965 | 3.9%above the others | 3.2% |
| Frontier Airlines | 4,928 | 5.0%above the others | 3.8% |
| PSA Airlines | 982 | 7.7%above the others | 3.9% |
These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from ATL and PHL, 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), PHL, 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.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 9,103 | 76.4% | 1.53% | -2 min | 6.9% |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,836 | 62.0% | 2.40% | 3 min | 18.0% |
| American Airlines | 1,992 | 76.4% | 1.81% | -8 min | 11.5% |
| PSA Airlines | 1,809 | 78.6% | 3.65% | -10 min | 9.1% |
| Southwest Airlines | 980 | 78.4% | 0.31% | -3 min | 5.8% |
| Spirit Airlines | 811 | 76.3% | 1.48% | -5 min | 7.0% |
| Republic Airways | 378 | 87.7% | 2.91% | -11 min | 4.1% |
Delta Air Lines flew 50.8% of the 17,909 flights listed. PSA Airlines cancelled 3.65% of its flights here against 0.31% for Southwest Airlines.
Republic Airways arrived on time 25.7 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.
DL2270 (10:00 AM) arrived on time 85.3% of the time, 19.7 points more often than DL1169 (3:15 PM) at 65.6%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 10.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.3%
- Feb: 80.1%
- Mar: 76.2%
- Apr: 77.4%
- May: 71.2%
- Jun: 70.1%
- Jul: 59.7%
- Aug: 71.2%
- Sep: 82.3%
- Oct: 81.3%
- Nov: 82.5%
- Dec: 75.3%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 22.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 57.3% from 486 flights
- August 2023: 71.2% from 502 flights
- September 2023: 82.0% from 521 flights
- October 2023: 84.1% from 565 flights
- November 2023: 88.0% from 500 flights
- December 2023: 86.3% from 467 flights
- January 2024: 79.2% from 421 flights
- February 2024: 90.1% from 395 flights
- March 2024: 80.6% from 464 flights
- April 2024: 79.2% from 497 flights
- May 2024: 69.6% from 533 flights
- June 2024: 75.8% from 506 flights
- July 2024: 63.7% from 520 flights
- August 2024: 67.7% from 521 flights
- September 2024: 80.9% from 484 flights
- October 2024: 81.6% from 490 flights
- November 2024: 81.3% from 477 flights
- December 2024: 72.3% from 512 flights
- January 2025: 71.6% from 417 flights
- February 2025: 74.6% from 409 flights
- March 2025: 76.4% from 474 flights
- April 2025: 73.7% from 470 flights
- May 2025: 64.8% from 487 flights
- June 2025: 56.0% from 514 flights
- July 2025: 57.7% from 528 flights
- August 2025: 74.9% from 506 flights
- September 2025: 84.3% from 436 flights
- October 2025: 77.6% from 474 flights
- November 2025: 77.6% from 465 flights
- December 2025: 67.3% from 460 flights
- January 2026: 77.8% from 425 flights
- February 2026: 75.7% from 406 flights
- March 2026: 71.2% from 458 flights
- April 2026: 79.1% from 491 flights
- May 2026: 78.8% from 520 flights
- June 2026: 77.7% from 544 flights
- July 2026: 60.2% from 564 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 74.9% against 71.3% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 17,909 ATL → PHL 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