Airport month record
DFWMAR
Dallas/Fort Worth International in March 2026
- Departures
- 26,008
- Month
- March 2026
- National, same month
- 75.7%
- Carriers
- 10
Historical statistics for March 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s March. For today’s conditions at DFW, see live FAA status.
DFW in March sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 75.7%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 26,008 flights, of which Envoy Air flew 4,319 at 87.8% on time.
Envoy Air is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 87.8% on time across 4,319 flights.
Key figures
On time
73.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 25,254 completed departures
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.51%
Nationally in March: 2.90%
Whole year
72.0%
DFW across all twelve months
These figures cover 26,008 departures from Dallas/Fort Worth International in March 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
March next to DFW's other months
Against DFW's own year, March ran about a point better than the twelve-month rate of 72.0%, which makes it number seven of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, February ran 78.9% on time and April 73.9%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.
| 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 | 24,229 | 75.4% | 79 min | 9.85% | B− |
| February 2026 | 22,019 | 78.9% | 63 min | 1.31% | B |
| March 2026 (this page) | 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 March
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 points, against 31 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,604 flights82.2%
- 8am–11am5,218 flights82.5%
- 11am–2pm4,593 flights74.9%
- 2pm–5pm4,084 flights68.6%
- 5pm–8pm5,010 flights66.7%
- 8pm–5am4,499 flights67.8%
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 82.5% of the time, against 66.7% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 5,218 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.1% on time and Saturday the weakest at 64.0%. 16 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at DFW in March
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Envoy Air arrives on time 87.8% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 56.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 413 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 14,267 | 68.7% | 72 min | 1.66% | C |
| Envoy Air | 4,319 | 87.8% | 58 min | 1.09% | A |
| PSA Airlines | 2,323 | 72.1% | 102 min | 7.32% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,828 | 75.6% | 94 min | 4.60% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines | 950 | 81.3% | 82 min | 4.11% | B− |
| Frontier Airlines | 889 | 72.0% | 76 min | 2.92% | C |
| United Airlines | 821 | 77.1% | 100 min | 1.46% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 413 | 56.6% | 76 min | 8.23% | D− |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 151 | 85.2% | 52 min | 1.32% | A |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 40 | 48.7% | 74 min | 2.50% | F |
Spirit Airlines cancels 8.2% 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 March
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DFW to ATL · Atlanta | 588 | 73.2% | 71 min | 2.72% | C |
| DFW to LGA · New York | 570 | 54.2% | 83 min | 6.32% | F− |
| DFW to ORD · Chicago | 558 | 64.1% | 81 min | 4.12% | D− |
| DFW to LAX · Los Angeles | 548 | 80.5% | 60 min | 1.64% | B |
| DFW to DEN · Denver | 539 | 73.9% | 74 min | 1.11% | C |
| DFW to IAH · Houston | 489 | 70.3% | 96 min | 2.66% | C |
| DFW to PHX · Phoenix | 486 | 77.2% | 69 min | 1.23% | B |
| DFW to LAS · Las Vegas | 462 | 77.6% | 70 min | 1.08% | B |
| DFW to MCO · Orlando | 451 | 58.6% | 64 min | 3.99% | D− |
| DFW to MIA · Miami | 402 | 69.4% | 73 min | 2.99% | C |
| DFW to AUS · Austin | 389 | 68.4% | 76 min | 3.08% | C− |
| DFW to SEA · Seattle | 387 | 73.7% | 55 min | 2.58% | C |
| DFW to SAT · San Antoniothin sample | 364 | 68.1% | 75 min | 1.92% | C |
| DFW to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 358 | 74.8% | 64 min | 1.40% | C |
| DFW to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample | 346 | 61.6% | 72 min | 4.34% | D− |
| DFW to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 337 | 79.3% | 59 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| DFW to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 327 | 71.7% | 70 min | 1.83% | C |
| DFW to XNA · Bentonvillethin sample | 316 | 83.6% | 102 min | 2.53% | B |
| DFW to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 300 | 68.2% | 101 min | 0.67% | C+ |
| DFW to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample | 296 | 72.5% | 77 min | 1.69% | C |
| DFW to SAN · San Diegothin sample | 292 | 76.9% | 53 min | 0.68% | B+ |
| DFW to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 292 | 79.0% | 64 min | 5.14% | B− |
| DFW to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 281 | 74.4% | 79 min | 1.42% | C |
| DFW to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 279 | 64.8% | 76 min | 2.15% | D |
| DFW to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 277 | 67.8% | 54 min | 1.81% | C |
Delay causes
What held DFW up in March
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 513,000 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.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 34%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% 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 513,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 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 513,294 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.51%, against 2.90% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 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. 10.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 9.5% 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 March
For a March trip through DFW: expect 73.4% on time and 2.51% cancelled, going by March 2026. The 8am–11am window was the strongest part of the 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 January75.4%
- DFW in February78.9%
- 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.