Route profile
ATL→TPA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Atlanta to Tampa, 406 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 22% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 19,949 flights. How this is calculated
ATL → TPA arrives on time 73.7% of the time; the return trip, TPA → ATL, arrives on time 78.4% of the time, a 4.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ATL → TPA spends 22.4 minutes on the ground on a 406-mile trip: 16.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ATL and 5.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at TPA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability here swings unusually widely by season, a wider month-to-month spread than 94% of 3,357 comparable routes.
83.3% on time in a typical November, against 57.7% in July.
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 3,357 in the comparison.
Why ATL → TPA flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
ATL → TPA cancelled 330 of 19,949 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 60. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 64.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 94 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 330 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.
213 cancellations, 64.5% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
105 cancellations, 31.8% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
12 cancellations, 3.6% 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.
330 coded cancellations were recorded on ATL → TPA; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
56 min late
against a median of 2 min early
Percentiles over 19,949 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at TPA after arriving from ATL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 45% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.2% | 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 1.65% of the time and diverts 0.18% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 19,583 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 19,949 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ATL → TPA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.5% of the time, against 63.6% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 24.9 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 9.0 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 3.8 points.
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On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time
- 40–49
- 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 (630 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 | 89.1% on time175 flights | 88.6% on time133 flights | 93.0% on time145 flights | 91.7% on time171 flights | 91.9% on time163 flights | 77 flights, too few to score | 92.5% on time134 flights |
| 8 AM–9 AM | 81.9% on time206 flights | 88.9% on time182 flights | 90.9% on time179 flights | 87.2% on time190 flights | 82.0% on time212 flights | 82.7% on time195 flights | 84.9% on time187 flights |
| 9 AM–10 AM | 75.3% on time151 flights | 117 flights, too few to score | 111 flights, too few to score | 80.5% on time131 flights | 72.3% on time143 flights | 68.8% on time144 flights | 119 flights, too few to score |
| 10 AM–11 AM | 78.0% on time188 flights | 84.1% on time152 flights | 84.5% on time158 flights | 69.7% on time188 flights | 74.5% on time190 flights | 73.9% on time154 flights | 85.2% on time211 flights |
| 11 AM–12 PM | 81.0% on time212 flights | 86.8% on time263 flights | 90.2% on time250 flights | 86.5% on time219 flights | 81.4% on time209 flights | 78.9% on time215 flights | 80.9% on time210 flights |
| 12 PM–1 PM | 73.3% on time193 flights | 79.6% on time199 flights | 82.6% on time210 flights | 85.0% on time204 flights | 78.5% on time198 flights | 80.4% on time164 flights | 70.1% on time196 flights |
| 1 PM–2 PM | 78.1% on time161 flights | 79.1% on time135 flights | 75.6% on time133 flights | 76.7% on time161 flights | 73.6% on time161 flights | 69.6% on time149 flights | 71.5% on time157 flights |
| 2 PM–3 PM | 78.3% on time144 flights | 83.7% on time157 flights | 84.1% on time160 flights | 76.6% on time139 flights | 72.2% on time145 flights | 84.5% on time129 flights | 69.0% on time156 flights |
| 3 PM–4 PM | 70.3% on time152 flights | 66.5% on time186 flights | 76.3% on time157 flights | 73.7% on time170 flights | 67.1% on time148 flights | 71.0% on time159 flights | 63.4% on time158 flights |
| 4 PM–5 PM | 70.1% on time204 flights | 79.4% on time222 flights | 74.8% on time205 flights | 66.3% on time204 flights | 71.4% on time202 flights | 72.2% on time200 flights | 57.1% on time201 flights |
| 5 PM–6 PM | 65.7% on time240 flights | 74.1% on time215 flights | 70.8% on time219 flights | 64.1% on time237 flights | 58.5% on time238 flights | 65.6% on time213 flights | 55.9% on time210 flights |
| 6 PM–7 PM | 61.4% on time158 flights | 72.5% on time164 flights | 71.4% on time179 flights | 67.5% on time161 flights | 62.0% on time162 flights | 66.7% on time153 flights | 53.7% on time138 flights |
| 7 PM–8 PM | 65.8% on time152 flights | 74.6% on time141 flights | 78.0% on time135 flights | 65.0% on time148 flights | 66.7% on time146 flights | 63.5% on time139 flights | 48.9% on time180 flights |
| 8 PM–9 PM | 65.2% on time163 flights | 113 flights, too few to score | 118 flights, too few to score | 62.3% on time181 flights | 60.5% on time167 flights | 65.9% on time129 flights | 51.9% on time163 flights |
| 9 PM–10 PM | 64.4% on time161 flights | 119 flights, too few to score | 111 flights, too few to score | 63.5% on time143 flights | 57.6% on time155 flights | 79 flights, too few to score | 49.7% on time149 flights |
| 10 PM–11 PM | 68.6% on time228 flights | 73.1% on time200 flights | 70.5% on time203 flights | 64.3% on time225 flights | 59.3% on time222 flights | 70.4% on time202 flights | 57.4% on time257 flights |
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 95.1% on time from 375 flights
- 7 AM: 90.7% on time from 998 flights
- 8 AM: 85.3% on time from 1,351 flights
- 9 AM: 75.6% on time from 916 flights
- 10 AM: 78.5% on time from 1,241 flights
- 11 AM: 84.0% on time from 1,578 flights
- 12 PM: 78.5% on time from 1,364 flights
- 1 PM: 74.9% on time from 1,057 flights
- 2 PM: 78.3% on time from 1,030 flights
- 3 PM: 69.7% on time from 1,130 flights
- 4 PM: 70.3% on time from 1,438 flights
- 5 PM: 64.9% on time from 1,572 flights
- 6 PM: 65.4% on time from 1,115 flights
- 7 PM: 65.4% on time from 1,041 flights
- 8 PM: 62.7% on time from 1,034 flights
- 9 PM: 60.2% on time from 917 flights
- 10 PM: 65.8% on time from 1,537 flights
- 11 PM: 62.3% on time from 167 flights
Why ATL → TPA 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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for ATL → TPA. 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 TPA: 3.3 times the normal rate at ATL and 3.3 times at TPA. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: ATL 3.4% against 1.0%, TPA 5.1% against 1.5%. Flights that did leave TPA in bad weather arrived on time 61.5% of the time, against 79.6% in normal hours.
Bad weather and normal hours at the airports
Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026| Departures from | ATL | TPA |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 3.4% | 5.1% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.0% | 1.5% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 66.5% | 61.5% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 80.2% | 79.6% |
| Departures in bad weather | 105,854 | 17,505 |
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 Frontier Airlines (5.0% cancelled against 3.8% 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% |
| Delta Air Lines | 73,919 | 3.5%about level | 3.6% |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,965 | 3.9%above the others | 3.2% |
| Frontier Airlines | 4,928 | 5.0%above the others | 3.8% |
These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from ATL and TPA, 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), TPA, 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 | 13,487 | 74.9% | 1.51% | -2 min | 8.4% |
| Southwest Airlines | 3,491 | 76.5% | 1.32% | -2 min | 7.7% |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,311 | 63.2% | 2.94% | 1 min | 16.3% |
| Spirit Airlines | 660 | 71.3% | 1.97% | -3 min | 13.0% |
Delta Air Lines flew 67.6% of the 19,949 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.94% of its flights here against 1.32% for Southwest Airlines.
Southwest Airlines arrived on time 13.3 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.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL1227 Delta Air Lines | 8:35 AM | 1,124 | 87.0% |
| DL1099 Delta Air Lines | 11:00 AM | 1,106 | 83.0% |
| DL1587 Delta Air Lines | 10:00 AM | 1,035 | 76.8% |
| DL1594 Delta Air Lines | 5:25 PM | 1,031 | 67.2% |
| DL1525 Delta Air Lines | 12:15 PM | 996 | 78.7% |
| DL1457 Delta Air Lines | 6:25 PM | 947 | 67.8% |
| DL1720 Delta Air Lines | 1:40 PM | 884 | 73.5% |
| DL1425 Delta Air Lines | 4:20 PM | 830 | 67.9% |
| DL759 Delta Air Lines | 3:20 PM | 769 | 70.1% |
| DL1591 Delta Air Lines | 8:55 PM | 738 | 61.4% |
DL1227 (8:35 AM) arrived on time 87.0% of the time, 25.6 points more often than DL1591 (8:55 PM) at 61.4%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 12.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 73.7%
- Feb: 80.6%
- Mar: 69.6%
- Apr: 77.1%
- May: 69.9%
- Jun: 70.0%
- Jul: 57.7%
- Aug: 71.2%
- Sep: 80.9%
- Oct: 82.7%
- Nov: 83.3%
- Dec: 75.2%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 25.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 63.8% from 562 flights
- August 2023: 69.3% from 527 flights
- September 2023: 80.1% from 524 flights
- October 2023: 85.4% from 557 flights
- November 2023: 86.4% from 551 flights
- December 2023: 80.0% from 605 flights
- January 2024: 75.4% from 560 flights
- February 2024: 84.6% from 535 flights
- March 2024: 67.0% from 615 flights
- April 2024: 77.4% from 608 flights
- May 2024: 69.8% from 628 flights
- June 2024: 72.9% from 571 flights
- July 2024: 53.1% from 572 flights
- August 2024: 74.5% from 552 flights
- September 2024: 80.8% from 519 flights
- October 2024: 85.2% from 542 flights
- November 2024: 86.8% from 524 flights
- December 2024: 74.7% from 541 flights
- January 2025: 71.8% from 507 flights
- February 2025: 77.1% from 491 flights
- March 2025: 70.0% from 569 flights
- April 2025: 73.8% from 521 flights
- May 2025: 71.6% from 551 flights
- June 2025: 57.0% from 531 flights
- July 2025: 54.5% from 545 flights
- August 2025: 69.2% from 472 flights
- September 2025: 82.2% from 433 flights
- October 2025: 77.0% from 484 flights
- November 2025: 75.9% from 488 flights
- December 2025: 69.9% from 504 flights
- January 2026: 73.5% from 503 flights
- February 2026: 79.7% from 489 flights
- March 2026: 72.1% from 568 flights
- April 2026: 80.0% from 557 flights
- May 2026: 68.4% from 565 flights
- June 2026: 79.5% from 533 flights
- July 2026: 59.3% from 545 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 73.7% against 73.1% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 19,949 ATL → TPA 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