Carrier performance at one airport
UA→DFW
United Airlines at Dallas/Fort Worth International
- Departures
- 9,850
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 6
- Rank here
- #4 of 9
United Airlines at Dallas-Fort Worth sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 9,850 flights, of which Envoy Air flew 63,918 at 82.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, United Airlines runs 4 points ahead of the 72.0% 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
75.9%
9,644 completed departures
Avg delay
88 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.72%
At DFW, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at DFW
These figures cover 9,850 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at DFW, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Envoy Air arrives on time 82.1% of the time; American Airlines manages 65.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 164,581 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Air | 63,918 | 82.1% | 57 min | 2.33% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 11,747 | 80.9% | 92 min | 2.49% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 23,089 | 77.2% | 80 min | 3.36% | B− |
| United Airlines (this page) | 9,850 | 75.9% | 88 min | 1.72% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 9,912 | 74.7% | 80 min | 2.14% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 22,542 | 74.1% | 91 min | 4.37% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 4,404 | 73.6% | 73 min | 3.02% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,389 | 72.3% | 59 min | 1.38% | C |
| American Airlines | 164,581 | 65.9% | 74 min | 3.16% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 4.4% 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 United Airlines flies from DFW
United Airlines operates 6 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 IAH · Houston | 2,414 | 76.9% | 86 min | 1.99% | B |
| DFW to ORD · Chicago | 2,010 | 71.7% | 94 min | 1.79% | C |
| DFW to DEN · Denver | 1,901 | 75.7% | 78 min | 1.21% | B |
| DFW to EWR · Newark | 1,758 | 77.1% | 91 min | 2.62% | B |
| DFW to IAD · Washington | 915 | 84.4% | 93 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| DFW to SFO · San Francisco | 852 | 71.8% | 91 min | 0.82% | C+ |
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 25 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,273 flights86.8%
- 8am–11am1,295 flights80.7%
- 11am–2pm2,062 flights78.3%
- 2pm–5pm1,535 flights68.3%
- 5pm–8pm2,322 flights67.7%
- 8pm–5am363 flights62.0%
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 62.0% on time, against 86.8% 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 2,322 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 67.9% on time, 18 points below February, the best at 86.2%. 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. June was the busiest month here, with 913 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 39%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%National Airspace System
- 21%Carrier
- 4%Extreme weather
39% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 205,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 204,612 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.72% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.38%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 10.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 9,850 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: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 86.2% on time and June 67.9%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 9,644 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
United Airlines at DFW
How often is United Airlines at DFW delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.1% of the 9,850 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on United Airlines at DFW?
Envoy Air leads at 82.1% on time across 63,918 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 65.9%, a gap of 16 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 United Airlines at DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 86.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 62.0%, 25 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 United Airlines at DFW?
June is the weakest month at 67.9% on time, compared with 86.2% in February. Across the year that is 18 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
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) all carriers
- DFW to IAH route record76.9%
- DFW to ORD route record71.7%
- DFW to DEN route record75.7%
- DFW to EWR route record77.1%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.