Carrier performance at one airport
DL→DFW
Delta Air Lines at Dallas/Fort Worth International
- Departures
- 11,632
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 9
- Rank here
- #2 of 10
Delta Air Lines at Dallas-Fort Worth lands a B, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 11,632 flights, of which Envoy Air flew 64,201 at 83.6% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 9 points ahead of the 72.8% weighted average across all carriers at DFW. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
81.4%
11,298 completed departures
Avg delay
88 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.59%
At DFW, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at DFW
These figures cover 12,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Against the competition
Every carrier at DFW, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Envoy Air arrives on time 83.6% of the time; American Airlines manages 66.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 164,984 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Air | 64,201 | 83.6% | 57 min | 2.02% | B |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 11,632 | 81.4% | 88 min | 2.59% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 22,429 | 77.7% | 82 min | 2.89% | B |
| United Airlines | 10,062 | 76.6% | 86 min | 1.62% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,459 | 76.1% | 56 min | 1.10% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 22,290 | 74.7% | 89 min | 4.25% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 10,947 | 74.1% | 81 min | 2.10% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 3,241 | 74.0% | 74 min | 3.95% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 480 | 69.3% | 99 min | 3.12% | C− |
| American Airlines | 164,984 | 66.7% | 73 min | 2.68% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 4.3% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where Delta Air Lines flies from DFW
Delta Air Lines operates 9 routes out of DFW with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DFW to ATL · Atlanta | 2,785 | 83.5% | 83 min | 2.59% | B |
| DFW to LGA · New York | 1,851 | 72.5% | 92 min | 5.24% | C− |
| DFW to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,459 | 83.1% | 87 min | 1.44% | B |
| DFW to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,413 | 81.4% | 85 min | 1.42% | B |
| DFW to DTW · Detroit | 1,405 | 84.8% | 95 min | 1.64% | B |
| DFW to BOS · Boston | 868 | 76.2% | 86 min | 2.42% | B |
| DFW to LAX · Los Angeles | 757 | 89.2% | 95 min | 1.59% | A |
| DFW to SEA · Seattle | 720 | 79.3% | 89 min | 1.67% | B |
| DFW to JFK · New York | 373 | 89.9% | 94 min | 6.17% | A− |
Flight by flight
Delta Air Lines flight numbers from DFW
14 Delta Air Lines flight numbers leaving DFW flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
- DL 32to ATL 16:0477.7%
- DL 401to ATL 05:2592.5%
- DL 893to ATL 07:0092.5%
- DL 303to BOS 18:5576.0%
- DL 2351to BOS 07:0588.2%
- DL 1441to DTW 17:0080.7%
- DL 2183to DTW 05:3093.3%
- DL 454to JFK 08:0089.8%
- DL 439to LAX 06:1592.1%
- DL 948to LAX 16:1085.6%
- DL 869to LGA 16:5068.7%
- DL 1276to MSP 06:5089.4%
- DL 804to SEA 06:3085.0%
- DL 1291to SLC 08:1089.4%
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 17 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am3,095 flights89.8%
- 8am–11am1,347 flights85.8%
- 11am–2pm2,577 flights80.2%
- 2pm–5pm2,223 flights77.1%
- 5pm–8pm2,178 flights73.2%
- 8pm–5am212 flights76.1%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.8% of the time, against 73.2% for the evening window. That is 17 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 3,095 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 76.4% on time, 12 points below February, the best at 88.0%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. October was the busiest month here, with 1,056 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 39%Carrier
- 36%Late-arriving aircraft
- 19%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
36% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 185,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 184,976 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.59%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
7.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 11,632 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 73.2% on time against 89.8% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 17 points is the largest single thing you control here. Envoy Air is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 11,298 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at DFW
How often is Delta Air Lines at DFW delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 18.6% of the 11,632 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Delta Air Lines at DFW?
Envoy Air leads at 83.6% on time across 64,201 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 66.7%, a gap of 17 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on Delta Air Lines at DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 73.2%, 17 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are June delays on Delta Air Lines at DFW?
June is the weakest month at 76.4% on time, compared with 88.0% in February. Across the year that is 12 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.