Airport month record
DALJAN
Dallas Love Field in January 2026
- Departures
- 5,470
- Month
- January 2026
- National, same month
- 79.2%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for January 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s January. For today’s conditions at DAL, see live FAA status.
DAL in January carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 4.7% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, more than four flights in five arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 5,470 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
Key figures
On time
82.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 5,155 completed departures
Avg delay
49 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.54%
Nationally in January: 4.71%
Whole year
73.2%
DAL across all twelve months
These figures cover 5,470 departures from Dallas Love Field in January 2026. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.
Against the year
January next to DAL's other months
Against DAL's own year, January ran 10 points better than the twelve-month rate of 73.2%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations are where January stands out: 5.54% of scheduled departures were called off, 3.9 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, December ran 78.7% on time and February 79.7%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 6,349 | 68.5% | 62 min | 1.32% | C |
| August 2025 | 5,730 | 75.5% | 61 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| September 2025 | 5,518 | 81.9% | 56 min | 0.13% | B+ |
| October 2025 | 6,100 | 75.9% | 57 min | 0.80% | B+ |
| November 2025 | 5,799 | 76.4% | 62 min | 2.71% | B |
| December 2025 | 6,070 | 78.7% | 50 min | 0.38% | B+ |
| January 2026 (this page) | 5,470 | 82.8% | 49 min | 5.54% | B− |
| February 2026 | 5,163 | 79.7% | 44 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| March 2026 | 6,221 | 70.3% | 56 min | 1.29% | C |
| April 2026 | 5,965 | 71.1% | 51 min | 0.70% | C+ |
| May 2026 | 6,141 | 64.3% | 62 min | 1.69% | D |
| June 2026 | 6,025 | 56.5% | 60 min | 1.18% | D |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave DAL in January
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 20 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am500 flights91.3%
- 8am–11am1,109 flights91.9%
- 11am–2pm1,186 flights87.2%
- 2pm–5pm1,296 flights76.1%
- 5pm–8pm986 flights76.3%
- 8pm–5am393 flights71.7%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 91.9% of the time, against 71.7% for the overnight window. That is 20 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 1,296 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 91.6% on time and Monday the weakest at 76.8%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at DAL in January
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 5,332 | 82.9% | 48 min | 5.50% | B− |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 138 | 78.9% | 67 min | 7.25% | B− |
Route by route
Busiest routes out of DAL in January
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAL to HOU · Houstonthin sample | 341 | 87.0% | 46 min | 4.99% | A− |
| DAL to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 258 | 82.6% | 64 min | 8.14% | B− |
| DAL to DEN · Denverthin sample | 249 | 82.5% | 46 min | 3.61% | B− |
| DAL to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 229 | 80.6% | 47 min | 5.68% | B− |
| DAL to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 225 | 80.3% | 50 min | 4.44% | B− |
| DAL to MCO · Orlandothin sample | 223 | 77.1% | 45 min | 4.04% | B− |
| DAL to SAT · San Antoniothin sample | 205 | 86.4% | 63 min | 6.34% | A− |
| DAL to AUS · Austinthin sample | 196 | 89.0% | 52 min | 7.14% | A− |
| DAL to MSY · New Orleansthin sample | 189 | 85.3% | 37 min | 6.35% | A− |
| DAL to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 186 | 84.2% | 47 min | 8.06% | B− |
| DAL to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample | 158 | 83.9% | 51 min | 5.70% | B− |
| DAL to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 156 | 77.6% | 44 min | 4.49% | B− |
| DAL to ELP · El Pasothin sample | 148 | 86.5% | 45 min | 4.73% | A− |
| DAL to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 147 | 82.7% | 56 min | 5.44% | B− |
| DAL to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 146 | 77.0% | 82 min | 6.85% | B− |
| DAL to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 136 | 84.3% | 52 min | 5.88% | B− |
| DAL to ABQ · Albuquerquethin sample | 128 | 86.6% | 50 min | 7.03% | A− |
| DAL to LBB · Lubbockthin sample | 127 | 87.2% | 58 min | 7.87% | A− |
| DAL to SAN · San Diegothin sample | 125 | 81.5% | 39 min | 3.20% | B− |
| DAL to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 119 | 83.0% | 47 min | 5.88% | B− |
| DAL to MAF · Midlandthin sample | 116 | 84.5% | 42 min | 5.17% | B− |
| DAL to TPA · Tampathin sample | 99 | 79.8% | 38 min | 5.05% | B− |
| DAL to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 98 | 76.6% | 43 min | 4.08% | B− |
| DAL to AMA · Amarillothin sample | 96 | 85.4% | 45 min | 7.29% | A− |
| DAL to TUL · Tulsathin sample | 93 | 89.3% | 42 min | 9.68% | A− |
Delay causes
What held DAL up in January
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 42% of the 43,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
42% 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 43,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 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 43,099 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 5.54%, against 4.71% nationally. That is roughly one flight in twenty 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.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.1% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 7.6% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
What to do with this
Flying from DAL in January
For a January trip through DAL: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 82.8% on time with 5.54% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- Dallas Love Field (DAL), the whole year
- DAL in July68.5%
- DAL in August75.5%
- DAL in September81.9%
- DAL in October75.9%
- DAL in November76.4%
- DAL in December78.7%
- DAL in February79.7%
- DAL in March70.3%
- DAL in April71.1%
- DAL in May64.3%
- DAL in June56.5%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.