Carrier performance at one airport
WN→DAL
Southwest Airlines at Dallas Love Field
- Departures
- 68,636
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #2 of 2
Southwest Airlines at Dallas sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about 55 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 68,636 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,800 at 81.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs half a point behind the 72.6% weighted average across all carriers at DAL. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
72.4%
67,519 completed departures
Avg delay
55 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.35%
At DAL, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 2 carriers clearing the floor at DAL
These figures cover 69,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at DAL, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 81.2% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 72.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 68,636 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,800 | 81.2% | 89 min | 2.06% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 68,636 | 72.4% | 55 min | 1.35% | C |
Delta leads Southwest by 9 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Route by route
Where Southwest Airlines flies from DAL
Southwest Airlines operates 25 routes out of DAL 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAL to HOU · Houston | 4,044 | 74.8% | 54 min | 1.95% | C |
| DAL to DEN · Denver | 2,966 | 70.2% | 59 min | 1.38% | C |
| DAL to PHX · Phoenix | 2,867 | 73.9% | 55 min | 2.06% | C |
| DAL to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,859 | 74.6% | 53 min | 1.19% | C |
| DAL to SAT · San Antonio | 2,755 | 76.7% | 59 min | 1.09% | B |
| DAL to MCO · Orlando | 2,653 | 70.4% | 54 min | 1.55% | C |
| DAL to BNA · Nashville | 2,443 | 70.7% | 55 min | 1.39% | C |
| DAL to AUS · Austin | 2,335 | 76.9% | 55 min | 1.03% | B |
| DAL to MSY · New Orleans | 2,281 | 75.6% | 54 min | 1.14% | B |
| DAL to MDW · Chicago | 2,192 | 69.6% | 53 min | 2.05% | C |
| DAL to MCI · Kansas City | 2,050 | 75.6% | 52 min | 1.41% | B |
| DAL to STL · St. Louis | 1,943 | 76.2% | 60 min | 1.24% | B |
| DAL to BWI · Baltimore | 1,828 | 73.8% | 55 min | 1.86% | C |
| DAL to ELP · El Paso | 1,770 | 73.9% | 54 min | 0.96% | C+ |
| DAL to DCA · Washington | 1,732 | 65.4% | 60 min | 1.96% | C |
| DAL to ABQ · Albuquerque | 1,623 | 76.7% | 54 min | 1.36% | B |
| DAL to SAN · San Diego | 1,597 | 71.7% | 51 min | 1.25% | C |
| DAL to LGA · New York | 1,557 | 59.8% | 64 min | 3.34% | D− |
| DAL to ATL · Atlanta | 1,497 | 74.3% | 57 min | 1.67% | C |
| DAL to LBB · Lubbock | 1,494 | 77.1% | 54 min | 1.27% | B |
| DAL to LAX · Los Angeles | 1,485 | 68.7% | 50 min | 1.01% | C |
| DAL to MAF · Midland | 1,353 | 77.4% | 60 min | 0.81% | B+ |
| DAL to TPA · Tampa | 1,273 | 70.6% | 54 min | 0.94% | C+ |
| DAL to AMA · Amarillo | 1,263 | 74.3% | 54 min | 0.95% | C+ |
| DAL to TUL · Tulsa | 1,047 | 77.0% | 53 min | 0.96% | B+ |
Flight by flight
Southwest Airlines flight numbers from DAL
1 Southwest Airlines flight numbers leaving DAL flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
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 38 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am8,253 flights91.6%
- 8am–11am13,577 flights86.7%
- 11am–2pm13,148 flights75.3%
- 2pm–5pm13,049 flights66.9%
- 5pm–8pm11,524 flights59.4%
- 8pm–5am9,085 flights53.5%
Scale runs 45% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 53.5% on time, against 91.6% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 13,577 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 55.9% on time, 27 points below January, the best at 82.9%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 6,090 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 1.02 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 16 to one. The split is drawn from 1,019,859 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.35% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
8.0% 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 about 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
68,636 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 82.9% on time and June 55.9%, a swing of 27 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 67,519 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at DAL
How often is Southwest Airlines at DAL delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 27.6% of the 68,636 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at DAL?
Delta Air Lines leads at 81.2% on time across 1,800 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 72.4%, a gap of 9 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 Southwest Airlines at DAL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.6% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 53.5%, 38 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 Southwest Airlines at DAL?
June is the weakest month at 55.9% on time, compared with 82.9% in January. Across the year that is 27 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.