Route profile
SNA→ATL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Santa Ana to Atlanta, 1,919 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 61% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,208 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SNA → ATL arrives on time 82.4% of the time; the return trip, ATL → SNA, arrives on time 76.6% of the time, a 5.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SNA → ATL spends 27.8 minutes on the ground on a 1,919-mile trip: 19.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SNA and 8.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at ATL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where SNA to ATL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SNA to ATL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 91.2% arrive on time, 18.9 points ahead of the 72.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 21.8 points.
SNA to ATL struggles most at 7 AM: 74.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 12.3 points behind the 86.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.3 points.
SNA to ATL holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 86.2% on time to their 77.7%, a 8.5 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 9 points.
June is kinder to SNA to ATL than to routes of similar length: 80.2% on time against 73.0%, 7.2 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.5 points.
SNA to ATL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 91.2% | routes of similar length | 72.3% | +18.9 pts | 491 here, 31,241 there |
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 74.5% | routes of similar length | 86.8% | −12.3 pts | 141 here, 106,508 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 86.2% | routes of similar length | 77.7% | +8.5 pts | 492 here, 161,486 there |
| Month: June | 80.2% | routes of similar length | 73.0% | +7.2 pts | 293 here, 98,852 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 1,919 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
36 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 3,208 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ATL after arriving from SNA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.7% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.1% | 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 0.94% of the time and diverts 0.84% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,151 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 36 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,208 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SNA → ATL flights departing 9 PM–5 AM arrived on time 91.2% of the time, against 74.4% for 9 AM–12 PM departures, a gap of 16.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 87.1% on time from 961 flights
- 7 AM: 74.5% on time from 142 flights
- 8 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 74.4% on time from 368 flights
- 12 PM: 77.7% on time from 668 flights
- 1 PM: 76.6% on time from 215 flights
- 2 PM: 81.0% on time from 330 flights
- 3 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 91.2% on time from 500 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SNA → 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 SNA → 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 | 3,208 | 82.4% | 0.94% | -8 min | 6.7% |
Other ways to fly Los Angeles to Atlanta
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAX→ATL Los Angeles to Atlanta | 16,272 | 78.7% | 0.84% | -5 min | 68 |
| SNA→ATL this route Santa Ana to Atlanta | 3,208 | 82.4% | 0.94% | -8 min | 69 |
Flying to ATL from the Los Angeles area? Compare SNA, LAX, BUR, ONT 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL721 Delta Air Lines | 6:45 AM | 785 | 83.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Monday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.2%
- Feb: 84.3%
- Mar: 83.3%
- Apr: 80.3%
- May: 81.8%
- Jun: 80.2%
- Jul: 73.2%
- Aug: 83.0%
- Sep: 88.8%
- Oct: 86.7%
- Nov: 89.3%
- Dec: 81.7%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 16.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.6% against 83.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,208 SNA → 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