Airport month record

DFWDEC

Dallas/Fort Worth International in December 2025

Departures: 25,770
Month: December 2025
National, same month: 73.2%
Carriers: 9

Historical statistics for December 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s December. For today’s conditions at DFW, see live FAA status.

DFW in December sits in the middle of the pack with a C+. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 73.2%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 25,770 flights, of which Envoy Air flew 4,850 at 84.4% on time.

Envoy Air is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 84.4% on time across 4,850 flights.

On time

71.7%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 25,515 completed departures

Avg delay

67 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.62%

Nationally in December: 1.55%

Whole year

72.0%

DFW across all twelve months

These figures cover 25,770 departures from Dallas/Fort Worth International in December 2025. 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

December next to DFW's other months

Against DFW's own year, December ran level with the twelve-month rate of 72.0%, which makes it number nine of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for DFW in December, at 0.62% against 2.97% across the year. Either side of it, November ran 74.3% on time and January 75.4%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.

DFW month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	28,959	64.3%	76 min	3.10%	D−
August 2025	27,091	65.7%	80 min	2.66%	C
September 2025	25,641	77.4%	74 min	1.87%	B
October 2025	27,182	75.0%	64 min	1.20%	B
November 2025	25,032	74.3%	76 min	3.47%	C−
December 2025 (this page)	25,770	71.7%	67 min	0.62%	C+
January 2026	24,229	75.4%	79 min	9.85%	B−
February 2026	22,019	78.9%	63 min	1.31%	B
March 2026	26,008	73.4%	76 min	2.51%	C
April 2026	25,686	73.9%	66 min	1.33%	C
May 2026	27,419	72.7%	74 min	3.34%	C−
June 2026	27,815	63.6%	82 min	4.55%	D−

Departure window

The best time of day to leave DFW in December

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 18 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am2,457 flights81.7%
8am–11am5,594 flights78.8%
11am–2pm4,378 flights73.8%
2pm–5pm4,622 flights68.9%
5pm–8pm5,008 flights63.4%
8pm–5am3,711 flights66.9%

Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 63.4% on time, against 81.7% 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 5,594 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 77.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 63.2%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at DFW in December

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Envoy Air arrives on time 84.4% of the time; American Airlines manages 65.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 13,864 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at DFW in December 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
American Airlines	13,864	65.7%	64 min	0.19%	C+
Envoy Air	4,850	84.4%	43 min	0.43%	B+
PSA Airlines	2,067	66.6%	90 min	1.35%	C
SkyWest Airlines	1,811	80.4%	87 min	0.11%	B+
Delta Air Lines	980	78.6%	90 min	4.18%	B−
Frontier Airlines	807	77.3%	83 min	3.10%	B−
United Airlines	742	80.8%	70 min	0.54%	B+
Spirit Airlines	420	73.5%	78 min	1.90%	C
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	194	70.3%	62 min	1.03%	C

Delta Air Lines cancels 4.2% 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

Busiest routes out of DFW in December

Routes from DFW in December 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
DFW to ATL · Atlanta	574	77.2%	67 min	2.26%	B
DFW to ORD · Chicago	552	66.7%	69 min	1.27%	C
DFW to LGA · New York	542	62.6%	79 min	5.17%	D−
DFW to LAX · Los Angeles	508	73.4%	56 min	0.00%	C+
DFW to IAH · Houston	502	71.5%	59 min	0.20%	C+
DFW to DEN · Denver	480	70.6%	57 min	0.00%	C+
DFW to SEA · Seattle	453	60.8%	56 min	0.66%	D+
DFW to LAS · Las Vegas	445	75.6%	51 min	1.35%	B
DFW to PHX · Phoenix	425	78.1%	52 min	0.00%	B+
DFW to MCO · Orlando	411	69.6%	53 min	0.49%	C+
DFW to AUS · Austin	410	67.1%	57 min	0.00%	C+
DFW to MIA · Miami	399	69.5%	71 min	0.50%	C+
DFW to SAT · San Antoniothin sample	356	67.6%	61 min	0.00%	C+
DFW to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	337	67.0%	67 min	0.30%	C+
DFW to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	334	73.1%	58 min	0.90%	C+
DFW to CLT · Charlottethin sample	322	78.8%	56 min	0.31%	B+
DFW to DTW · Detroitthin sample	304	70.8%	73 min	0.66%	C+
DFW to EWR · Newarkthin sample	297	73.3%	72 min	1.35%	C
DFW to XNA · Bentonvillethin sample	291	79.6%	65 min	0.69%	B+
DFW to BOS · Bostonthin sample	290	76.5%	63 min	1.38%	B
DFW to SAN · San Diegothin sample	281	71.6%	52 min	0.00%	C+
DFW to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	276	64.8%	73 min	0.72%	D+
DFW to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	274	75.1%	47 min	0.00%	B+
DFW to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	273	71.3%	96 min	1.83%	C
DFW to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	265	75.1%	62 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held DFW up in December

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 49% of the 485,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
49%
Carrier
38%
National Airspace System
11%
Extreme weather
3%
Security
0%

49% 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 485,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 18 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 484,996 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.62%, below the national 1.55% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.

For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 10.0% 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.

What to do with this

Flying from DFW in December

For a December trip through DFW: expect 71.7% on time and 0.62% cancelled, going by December 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW), the whole year
DFW in July64.3%
DFW in August65.7%
DFW in September77.4%
DFW in October75.0%
DFW in November74.3%
DFW in January75.4%
DFW in February78.9%
DFW in March73.4%
DFW in April73.9%
DFW in May72.7%
DFW in June63.6%

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.

Key figures