Route profile
ILM→ATL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Wilmington to Atlanta, 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 83% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,536 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
ILM → ATL arrives on time 87.5% of the time; the return trip, ATL → ILM, arrives on time 84.8% of the time, a 2.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ILM → ATL spends 22.7 minutes on the ground on a 377-mile trip: 14.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ILM and 8.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at ATL.
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 90% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Delta Air Lines (88.0% on time) and Endeavor Air (86.1%) 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 ILM to ATL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
ILM to ATL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 85.2% arrive on time, 13.1 points ahead of the 72.1% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.5 points.
ILM to ATL holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 87.8% on time to their 77.3%, a 10.5 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 11 points.
September is kinder to ILM to ATL than to routes of similar length: 95.6% on time against 82.2%, 13.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 13.3 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on ILM to ATL than on its routes of similar length: 88.0% on time here, 80.0% there, 8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.5 points.
ILM to ATL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 85.2% | routes of similar length | 72.1% | +13.1 pts | 189 here, 90,955 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 87.8% | routes of similar length | 77.3% | +10.5 pts | 510 here, 233,016 there |
| Month: September | 95.6% | routes of similar length | 82.2% | +13.4 pts | 342 here, 126,762 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 88.0% | routes of similar length | 80.0% | +8.0 pts | 2,662 here, 210,035 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
22 min late
against a median of 12 min early
Percentiles over 3,536 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ATL after arriving from ILM.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 22% | High risk |
| 45 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.4% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.6% | 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 1.10% of the time and diverts 0.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,491 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 22 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,536 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ILM → ATL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 95.1% of the time, against 72.8% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 22.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 95.0% on time from 978 flights
- 7 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 93.6% on time from 253 flights
- 11 AM: 90.4% on time from 482 flights
- 12 PM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 79.9% on time from 523 flights
- 3 PM: 84.3% on time from 142 flights
- 4 PM: 85.2% on time from 191 flights
- 5 PM: 82.5% on time from 487 flights
- 6 PM: 69.0% on time from 234 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why ILM → ATL 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 ILM → ATL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 | 88.0% | 1.15% | -12 min | 5.1% |
| Endeavor Air | 795 | 86.1% | 0.88% | -13 min | 6.5% |
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.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 88.9%
- Feb: 89.5%
- Mar: 90.7%
- Apr: 87.6%
- May: 83.3%
- Jun: 83.1%
- Jul: 81.8%
- Aug: 84.7%
- Sep: 95.6%
- Oct: 92.6%
- Nov: 92.8%
- Dec: 84.3%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 13.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 87.5% from 122 flights
- August 2023: 84.0% 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 (96)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- 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: 75.9% from 122 flights
- August 2024: 86.9% 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 (18)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (14)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (50)
- 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: 79.8% from 120 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 87.2% against 86.4% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,536 ILM → 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