Route profile
DAL→ATL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Dallas to Atlanta, 721 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 46% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 10,772 flights. How this is calculated
DAL → ATL arrives on time 79.0% of the time; the return trip, ATL → DAL, arrives on time 79.6% of the time.
DAL → ATL spends 22.2 minutes on the ground on a 721-mile trip: 13.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DAL and 8.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at ATL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Why DAL → ATL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DAL → ATL cancelled 149 of 10,772 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 72. The reason filed most often was the airline, 52.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 138 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 149 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
78 cancellations, 52.3% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
67 cancellations, 45.0% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
4 cancellations, 2.7% 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. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
149 coded cancellations were recorded on DAL → ATL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
44 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 10,772 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ATL after arriving from DAL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 36% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.3% | 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 1.38% of the time and diverts 0.25% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 10,596 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 44 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 10,772 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DAL → ATL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.1% of the time, against 67.7% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 21.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 81.6% on time from 140 flights
- 6 AM: 89.9% on time from 1,606 flights
- 7 AM: 88.1% on time from 589 flights
- 8 AM: 90.0% on time from 556 flights
- 9 AM: 91.4% on time from 329 flights
- 10 AM: 84.7% on time from 855 flights
- 11 AM: 83.3% on time from 704 flights
- 12 PM: 81.1% on time from 976 flights
- 1 PM: 77.4% on time from 327 flights
- 2 PM: 80.1% on time from 619 flights
- 3 PM: 70.6% on time from 786 flights
- 4 PM: 68.0% on time from 743 flights
- 5 PM: 63.8% on time from 513 flights
- 6 PM: 72.9% on time from 1,239 flights
- 7 PM: 57.0% on time from 309 flights
- 8 PM: 63.8% on time from 257 flights
- 9 PM: 69.7% on time from 166 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DAL → ATL 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 DAL → ATL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DAL → ATL, at 42.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.1% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 67.7%.
How this route holds up in bad weather
July 2023 – July 2026
The harder-hit end is the one the flight leaves from, where a cancellation keeps it from departing at all. Bad weather cancels 9.8 times the normal rate at DAL against 3.3 times at ATL. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: DAL 7.2% against 0.7%, ATL 3.4% against 1.0%. Flights that did leave DAL in bad weather arrived on time 60.8% of the time, against 76.8% in normal hours.
Bad weather and normal hours at the airports
Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026| Departures from | DAL | ATL |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 7.2% | 3.4% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 0.7% | 1.0% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 60.8% | 66.5% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 76.8% | 80.2% |
| Departures in bad weather | 15,025 | 105,854 |
These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from DAL and ATL, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad.
Weather source and limits. In full: DAL, ATL, 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 | 5,653 | 81.7% | 1.50% | -9 min | 7.7% |
| Southwest Airlines | 5,119 | 76.1% | 1.25% | -3 min | 7.3% |
Delta Air Lines flew 52.5% of the 10,772 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 5.6 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Dallas–Fort Worth to Atlanta
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DFW→ATL Dallas–Fort Worth to Atlanta | 20,329 | 75.0% | 2.03% | -5 min | 52 |
| DAL→ATL this route Dallas to Atlanta | 10,772 | 79.0% | 1.38% | -6 min | 64 |
DAL → ATL is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 79.0% on time, against 75.0% for DFW → ATL.
Flying to ATL from the Dallas–Fort Worth area? Compare DAL, DFW for ATL, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL516 Delta Air Lines | 6:00 AM | 762 | 87.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.1%
- Feb: 84.3%
- Mar: 79.7%
- Apr: 75.5%
- May: 70.2%
- Jun: 72.8%
- Jul: 72.3%
- Aug: 82.6%
- Sep: 85.0%
- Oct: 83.7%
- Nov: 82.2%
- Dec: 83.1%
May is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 14.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 72.8% from 321 flights
- August 2023: 78.5% from 333 flights
- September 2023: 84.2% from 316 flights
- October 2023: 84.3% from 331 flights
- November 2023: 86.3% from 293 flights
- December 2023: 88.7% from 275 flights
- January 2024: 74.2% from 239 flights
- February 2024: 88.1% from 219 flights
- March 2024: 78.5% from 261 flights
- April 2024: 77.9% from 265 flights
- May 2024: 70.5% from 324 flights
- June 2024: 81.1% from 351 flights
- July 2024: 71.3% from 362 flights
- August 2024: 87.4% from 312 flights
- September 2024: 83.3% from 306 flights
- October 2024: 85.1% from 316 flights
- November 2024: 81.6% from 296 flights
- December 2024: 76.9% from 287 flights
- January 2025: 83.3% from 263 flights
- February 2025: 83.2% from 247 flights
- March 2025: 81.4% from 294 flights
- April 2025: 73.4% from 279 flights
- May 2025: 70.7% from 309 flights
- June 2025: 65.0% from 308 flights
- July 2025: 76.9% from 315 flights
- August 2025: 82.3% from 313 flights
- September 2025: 87.5% from 305 flights
- October 2025: 81.6% from 316 flights
- November 2025: 78.5% from 283 flights
- December 2025: 84.0% from 270 flights
- January 2026: 82.6% from 258 flights
- February 2026: 82.0% from 244 flights
- March 2026: 78.9% from 274 flights
- April 2026: 75.2% from 263 flights
- May 2026: 69.4% from 292 flights
- June 2026: 70.3% from 265 flights
- July 2026: 67.2% from 267 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.4% against 79.0% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 10,772 DAL → ATL 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