RDU → ATL Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · RDUNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:51 UTC

Raleigh–Durham airport profile →

Destination · ATLNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:52 UTC

Atlanta airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

75/ 100Strong

Better than 77% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 14,371 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

85.0%

12,060 of 14,189

Cancellation rate

1.13%

162 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-9 min

Average 2.5 min

Severe delays

5.5%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

78 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

14,371

3 carriers

RDU → ATL arrives on time 85.0% of the time; the return trip, ATL → RDU, arrives on time 80.2% of the time, a 4.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

RDU → ATL spends 26.0 minutes on the ground on a 356-mile trip: 16.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at RDU and 9.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at ATL.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

What stands out

On-time performance swings unusually widely by time of day here, wider than 98% of 4,023 comparable routes.

92.4% on time for 9 AM–12 PM departures, against 55.7% for 9 PM–5 AM.

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 4,023 in the comparison.

Why RDU → ATL flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

RDU → ATL cancelled 162 of 14,371 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 89. The reason filed most often was the airline, 57.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 155 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Airline57.4%

Weather42.6%

Air traffic0.0%

Security0.0%

Of 162 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

The airline1 in 155

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

93 cancellations, 57.4% of the total.

Extreme weather1 in 208

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

69 cancellations, 42.6% of the total.

The air traffic system—

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.

Security—

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.

162 coded cancellations were recorded on RDU → ATL; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

29 min late

against a median of 9 min early

Arrived an hour or more late5.5%

Typical delay when late78 min

Cancelled1.13%

Landed somewhere else0.14%

Percentiles over 14,371 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at ATL after arriving from RDU.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, RDU → ATL arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	28%	High risk
45 min	15%	Some risk
60 min	9.7%	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 1.13% of the time and diverts 0.14% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 14,189 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 29 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 14,371 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

RDU → ATL flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 92.4% of the time, against 55.7% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 36.7 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (RDU).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 6.8 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.3 points.

On-time arrival rate for RDU to ATL by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

65–69
70–74
75–79
80–84
85–89
90–94
95–99

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 after 7 PM (1,150 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for RDU to ATL. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM	95.4% on time181 flights	95.1% on time143 flights	93.9% on time147 flights	95.7% on time186 flights	96.7% on time185 flights	92.0% on time140 flights	96.6% on time179 flights
6 AM–7 AM	90.2% on time275 flights	93.1% on time268 flights	88.8% on time267 flights	90.9% on time266 flights	88.1% on time267 flights	91.2% on time233 flights	89.0% on time263 flights
7 AM–8 AM	112 flights, too few to score	89.2% on time131 flights	86.3% on time131 flights	113 flights, too few to score	112 flights, too few to score	87.4% on time127 flights	86.7% on time120 flights
8 AM–9 AM	84.0% on time122 flights	115 flights, too few to score	89.3% on time121 flights	93.3% on time120 flights	87.1% on time124 flights	85.2% on time139 flights	109 flights, too few to score
9 AM–10 AM	93.8% on time131 flights	114 flights, too few to score	91.9% on time125 flights	93.7% on time127 flights	92.7% on time124 flights	80 flights, too few to score	117 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	55 flights, too few to score	59 flights, too few to score	61 flights, too few to score	51 flights, too few to score	64 flights, too few to score	31 flights, too few to score	49 flights, too few to score
11 AM–12 PM	93.6% on time157 flights	90.2% on time173 flights	93.5% on time168 flights	95.1% on time163 flights	93.0% on time159 flights	88.6% on time153 flights	87.6% on time172 flights
12 PM–1 PM	83.8% on time200 flights	86.9% on time160 flights	86.8% on time159 flights	83.5% on time207 flights	82.4% on time207 flights	87.0% on time135 flights	78.2% on time173 flights
1 PM–2 PM	106 flights, too few to score	103 flights, too few to score	101 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	112 flights, too few to score	87.6% on time122 flights	119 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	62 flights, too few to score	57 flights, too few to score	61 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score	61 flights, too few to score	61 flights, too few to score	58 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	84.9% on time152 flights	83.7% on time148 flights	89.1% on time138 flights	89.4% on time143 flights	79.7% on time140 flights	85.2% on time142 flights	79.9% on time155 flights
4 PM–5 PM	66 flights, too few to score	64 flights, too few to score	78 flights, too few to score	68 flights, too few to score	76 flights, too few to score	75 flights, too few to score	66 flights, too few to score
5 PM–6 PM	80.0% on time174 flights	82.4% on time188 flights	79.6% on time181 flights	77.1% on time171 flights	66.7% on time162 flights	119 flights, too few to score	73.6% on time160 flights
6 PM–7 PM	75.2% on time161 flights	78.4% on time154 flights	83.3% on time139 flights	68.5% on time169 flights	67.1% on time165 flights	83.6% on time140 flights	67.6% on time180 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM90.3%

9 AM–12 PM92.4%

12–3 PM84.6%

3–6 PM80.5%

6–9 PM73.5%

9 PM–5 AM55.7%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why RDU → ATL runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft41.1%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline34.9%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Air traffic control21.9%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather2.1%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security<0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for RDU → ATL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on RDU → ATL, at 41.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 92.4% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 55.7%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of RDU to ATL: 2.6 times the normal rate at RDU and 3.3 times at ATL. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: RDU 4.1% against 1.6%, ATL 3.4% against 1.0%. Flights that did leave ATL in bad weather arrived on time 66.5% of the time, against 80.2% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from RDU and ATL in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	RDU	ATL
Cancelled in bad weather	4.1%	3.4%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.6%	1.0%
Arrived on time, bad weather	74.9%	66.5%
Arrived on time, normal hours	79.9%	80.2%
Departures in bad weather	16,672	105,854

Southwest Airlines (2.6% cancelled against 4.4% for the other carriers at RDU) and Delta Air Lines (2.9% cancelled against 4.4% for the other carriers at RDU) cancelled fewer departures from RDU in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly worse.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at RDU

All departures from RDU

Cancellation rates in bad weather at RDU for the airlines that fly RDU to ATL, against the other carriers at RDU in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
Southwest Airlines	2,490	2.6%below the others	4.4%
Delta Air Lines	3,499	2.9%below the others	4.4%
Frontier Airlines	1,043	5.3%about level	4.7%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from RDU and ATL, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from RDU on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: RDU (airlines), 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.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
Delta Air Lines	11,061	86.9%	0.92%	-10 min	4.8%
Southwest Airlines	1,771	86.2%	0.62%	-8 min	4.2%
Frontier Airlines	1,526	69.4%	3.15%	-2 min	12.1%

Delta Air Lines flew 77.0% of the 14,358 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 3.15% of its flights here against 0.62% for Southwest Airlines.

Delta Air Lines arrived on time 17.5 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.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
DL2026 Delta Air Lines	3:35 PM	647	87.0%

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon84.9%

Tue88.0%

Wed87.2%

Thu86.2%

Fri82.8%

Sat85.6%

Sun80.9%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.1 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 14.4 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 87.0% against 84.6% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.4 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 14,371 RDU → 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

RDU airport ATL airport Return direction ATL → RDU

RDU→ATL

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why RDU → ATL flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why RDU → ATL runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at RDU

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology