Airport month record
DFWJAN
Dallas/Fort Worth International in January 2026
- Departures
- 24,229
- Month
- January 2026
- National, same month
- 79.2%
- Carriers
- 9
Historical statistics for January 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s January. For today’s conditions at DFW, see live FAA status.
DFW in January carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 9.8% of scheduled flights never operate, against 4.7% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four 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 24,229 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 931 at 86.1% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 86.1% on time across 931 flights.
Key figures
On time
75.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 21,790 completed departures
Avg delay
79 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
9.85%
Nationally in January: 4.71%
Whole year
72.0%
DFW across all twelve months
These figures cover 24,229 departures from Dallas/Fort Worth International 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 DFW's other months
Against DFW's own year, January ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 72.0%, which makes it number three of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where January stands out: 9.85% of scheduled departures were called off, 3.3 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, December ran 71.7% on time and February 78.9%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.
| 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 | 25,770 | 71.7% | 67 min | 0.62% | C+ |
| January 2026 (this page) | 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 January
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 points, against 18 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,828 flights85.0%
- 8am–11am4,927 flights81.2%
- 11am–2pm4,966 flights76.6%
- 2pm–5pm4,175 flights72.7%
- 5pm–8pm5,109 flights69.3%
- 8pm–5am3,224 flights72.4%
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 85.0% of the time, against 69.3% for the evening window. That is 16 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 5,109 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.4%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at DFW in January
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.1% of the time; American Airlines manages 68.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 13,039 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 13,039 | 68.6% | 81 min | 11.16% | C− |
| Envoy Air | 4,614 | 85.8% | 56 min | 7.35% | A− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,877 | 83.3% | 85 min | 10.92% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,741 | 77.5% | 91 min | 9.08% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines | 931 | 86.1% | 102 min | 8.49% | A− |
| United Airlines | 761 | 83.3% | 105 min | 7.23% | B− |
| Frontier Airlines | 698 | 79.6% | 79 min | 5.87% | B− |
| Spirit Airlines | 396 | 76.7% | 64 min | 11.11% | B− |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 151 | 75.5% | 41 min | 5.30% | B− |
American Airlines cancels 11.2% 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 January
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DFW to ATL · Atlanta | 558 | 79.1% | 79 min | 10.04% | B− |
| DFW to LGA · New York | 535 | 75.3% | 80 min | 10.84% | B− |
| DFW to ORD · Chicago | 501 | 68.7% | 92 min | 8.18% | C− |
| DFW to DEN · Denver | 480 | 73.3% | 66 min | 8.75% | C− |
| DFW to LAX · Los Angeles | 477 | 75.1% | 86 min | 9.85% | B− |
| DFW to IAH · Houston | 475 | 80.6% | 98 min | 8.63% | B− |
| DFW to MCO · Orlando | 438 | 66.7% | 69 min | 10.27% | C− |
| DFW to MIA · Miami | 436 | 72.8% | 107 min | 8.94% | C− |
| DFW to LAS · Las Vegas | 422 | 74.5% | 94 min | 9.48% | C− |
| DFW to PHX · Phoenix | 403 | 71.5% | 84 min | 8.68% | C− |
| DFW to SEA · Seattle | 400 | 72.8% | 66 min | 9.50% | C− |
| DFW to AUS · Austin | 376 | 69.9% | 65 min | 9.84% | C− |
| DFW to SAT · San Antoniothin sample | 355 | 69.5% | 87 min | 9.58% | C− |
| DFW to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 326 | 74.1% | 67 min | 9.82% | C− |
| DFW to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 312 | 70.3% | 102 min | 10.26% | C− |
| DFW to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 308 | 69.9% | 69 min | 10.39% | C− |
| DFW to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 301 | 74.4% | 72 min | 11.30% | C− |
| DFW to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 301 | 78.5% | 74 min | 11.96% | B− |
| DFW to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 288 | 75.5% | 69 min | 11.46% | B− |
| DFW to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 278 | 77.6% | 73 min | 11.87% | B− |
| DFW to XNA · Bentonvillethin sample | 274 | 82.5% | 68 min | 8.03% | B− |
| DFW to SAN · San Diegothin sample | 274 | 69.0% | 72 min | 9.85% | C− |
| DFW to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample | 268 | 68.7% | 89 min | 9.33% | C− |
| DFW to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 261 | 70.2% | 75 min | 8.43% | C− |
| DFW to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 259 | 74.5% | 79 min | 7.72% | C− |
Delay causes
What held DFW up in January
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 424,000 reported delay minutes.
- 40%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 19%Extreme weather
- 10%National Airspace System
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 19% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the comparison with the other months below is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 10%, so this operation carries roughly 2.0 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 423,976 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 9.85%, against 4.71% nationally. That is about one flight in ten 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.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 7.6% 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 January
For a January trip through DFW: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 75.4% on time with 9.85% 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/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 December71.7%
- 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.