Route profile
PIT→ATL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Pittsburgh to Atlanta, 526 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 92% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 8,739 flights. How this is calculated
PIT → ATL arrives on time 88.3% of the time; the return trip, ATL → PIT, arrives on time 83.0% of the time, a 5.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PIT → ATL spends 23.2 minutes on the ground on a 526-mile trip: 14.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PIT 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
This route stays close to typical even on its worst days, a smaller gap than 91% of 4,598 comparable routes.
A typical arrival is 12 min early, and the worst tenth are only 31 minutes worse than that.
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 4,598 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where PIT to ATL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PIT to ATL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 91.6% arrive on time, 15.4 points ahead of the 76.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 17 points.
PIT to ATL holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 88.8% on time to their 77.7%, a 11.1 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 12 points.
June is kinder to PIT to ATL than to routes of similar length: 90.0% on time against 73.8%, 16.2 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 17.3 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on PIT to ATL than on its routes of similar length: 86.3% on time here, 78.2% there, 8.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 8.9 points.
PIT to ATL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 91.6% | routes of similar length | 76.2% | +15.4 pts | 131 here, 84,456 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 88.8% | routes of similar length | 77.7% | +11.1 pts | 1,302 here, 244,843 there |
| Month: June | 90.0% | routes of similar length | 73.8% | +16.2 pts | 711 here, 134,143 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 86.3% | routes of similar length | 78.2% | +8.1 pts | 1,339 here, 400,755 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 526 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.
Why PIT → ATL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
PIT → ATL cancelled 110 of 8,739 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 79. The reason filed most often was the airline, 66.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 120 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 110 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.
73 cancellations, 66.4% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
37 cancellations, 33.6% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
0 cancellations, 0.0% 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.
110 coded cancellations were recorded on PIT → ATL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
19 min late
against a median of 12 min early
Percentiles over 8,739 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ATL after arriving from PIT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 23% | High risk |
| 45 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 7.2% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.8% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.3% | 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 1.26% of the time and diverts 0.29% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 8,604 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 19 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 8,739 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PIT → ATL flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 93.3% of the time, against 80.4% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 12.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 94.2% on time from 263 flights
- 6 AM: 90.2% on time from 1,068 flights
- 7 AM: 90.9% on time from 1,090 flights
- 8 AM: 93.0% on time from 435 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 92.0% on time from 637 flights
- 11 AM: 94.7% on time from 721 flights
- 12 PM: 87.6% on time from 424 flights
- 1 PM: 90.3% on time from 1,013 flights
- 2 PM: 91.6% on time from 132 flights
- 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 86.7% on time from 939 flights
- 5 PM: 78.5% on time from 329 flights
- 6 PM: 81.5% on time from 827 flights
- 7 PM: 80.4% on time from 602 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why PIT → 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 PIT → ATL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PIT → ATL, at 39.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 93.3% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 80.4%.
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 | 7,337 | 89.0% | 1.43% | -13 min | 3.9% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,345 | 86.3% | 0.22% | -7 min | 2.8% |
Delta Air Lines flew 84.5% of the 8,682 flights listed. Delta Air Lines cancelled 1.43% of its flights here against 0.22% for Southwest Airlines.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 2.7 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL1380 (11:19 AM) arrived on time 91.9% of the time, 7.9 points more often than DL1568 (6:25 PM) at 84.0%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.8%
- Feb: 87.6%
- Mar: 89.1%
- Apr: 91.6%
- May: 86.0%
- Jun: 90.0%
- Jul: 82.9%
- Aug: 87.0%
- Sep: 92.0%
- Oct: 93.2%
- Nov: 93.9%
- Dec: 86.7%
January is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 13.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 81.3% from 256 flights
- August 2023: 78.8% from 242 flights
- September 2023: 89.6% from 240 flights
- October 2023: 93.1% from 248 flights
- November 2023: 93.8% from 260 flights
- December 2023: 93.8% from 260 flights
- January 2024: 83.8% from 199 flights
- February 2024: 88.6% from 185 flights
- March 2024: 90.0% from 229 flights
- April 2024: 91.4% from 245 flights
- May 2024: 82.5% from 272 flights
- June 2024: 90.6% from 255 flights
- July 2024: 78.7% from 271 flights
- August 2024: 89.7% from 254 flights
- September 2024: 90.8% from 239 flights
- October 2024: 94.5% from 253 flights
- November 2024: 95.4% from 219 flights
- December 2024: 83.0% from 230 flights
- January 2025: 72.0% from 210 flights
- February 2025: 82.4% from 204 flights
- March 2025: 88.8% from 234 flights
- April 2025: 89.8% from 230 flights
- May 2025: 87.7% from 254 flights
- June 2025: 87.4% from 246 flights
- July 2025: 88.3% from 250 flights
- August 2025: 92.3% from 246 flights
- September 2025: 95.7% from 235 flights
- October 2025: 92.0% from 251 flights
- November 2025: 92.3% from 217 flights
- December 2025: 82.1% from 228 flights
- January 2026: 86.3% from 217 flights
- February 2026: 91.9% from 210 flights
- March 2026: 88.3% from 235 flights
- April 2026: 93.6% from 222 flights
- May 2026: 87.9% from 243 flights
- June 2026: 92.2% from 223 flights
- July 2026: 83.3% from 227 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 89.9% against 87.7% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 8,739 PIT → 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