Airport month record
DFWMAY
Dallas/Fort Worth International in May 2026
- Departures
- 27,419
- Month
- May 2026
- National, same month
- 78.6%
- Carriers
- 9
Historical statistics for May 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s May. For today’s conditions at DFW, see live FAA status.
DFW in May carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 0.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 27,419 flights, of which Envoy Air flew 5,723 at 79.7% on time.
Envoy Air is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 79.7% on time across 5,723 flights.
Key figures
On time
72.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 26,427 completed departures
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.34%
Nationally in May: 0.92%
Whole year
72.8%
DFW across all twelve months
These figures cover 27,419 departures from Dallas/Fort Worth International in May 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
May next to DFW's other months
Against DFW's own year, May ran level with the twelve-month rate of 72.8%, which makes it number nine of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, April ran 73.9% on time and June 63.6%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 26,008 | 73.4% | 76 min | 2.51% | C |
| April 2026 | 25,686 | 73.9% | 66 min | 1.33% | C |
| May 2026 (this page) | 27,419 | 72.7% | 74 min | 3.34% | C− |
| June 2026 | 27,815 | 63.6% | 82 min | 4.55% | D− |
| July 2026 | 28,623 | 66.2% | 81 min | 1.20% | C |
| August 2026 | 27,347 | 73.5% | 68 min | 0.54% | C+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave DFW in May
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 23 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,537 flights87.4%
- 8am–11am5,447 flights82.8%
- 11am–2pm4,749 flights74.7%
- 2pm–5pm4,597 flights67.4%
- 5pm–8pm4,785 flights65.2%
- 8pm–5am5,304 flights64.3%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.3% on time, against 87.4% 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 5,447 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 78.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.4%, a spread of 11 points.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at DFW in May
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Envoy Air arrives on time 79.7% of the time; American Airlines manages 68.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 14,714 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 14,714 | 68.3% | 73 min | 3.61% | C− |
| Envoy Air | 5,723 | 79.7% | 62 min | 3.13% | B− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,859 | 74.4% | 82 min | 4.46% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,850 | 78.6% | 84 min | 4.22% | B− |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,068 | 77.1% | 79 min | 1.12% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 979 | 78.5% | 102 min | 1.74% | B |
| United Airlines | 901 | 74.0% | 99 min | 1.00% | C |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 265 | 71.0% | 77 min | 1.13% | C |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 31 | 90.3% | 194 min | 0.00% | A+ |
PSA Airlines cancels 4.5% 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 May
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DFW to ORD · Chicago | 628 | 70.8% | 80 min | 1.75% | C |
| DFW to ATL · Atlanta | 561 | 71.4% | 89 min | 3.39% | C− |
| DFW to LGA · New York | 549 | 72.5% | 68 min | 3.46% | C− |
| DFW to DEN · Denver | 532 | 73.7% | 76 min | 1.88% | C |
| DFW to LAX · Los Angeles | 527 | 73.6% | 78 min | 3.04% | C− |
| DFW to IAH · Houston | 518 | 68.0% | 83 min | 2.90% | C |
| DFW to PHX · Phoenix | 501 | 74.6% | 67 min | 3.99% | C− |
| DFW to SEA · Seattle | 483 | 69.1% | 70 min | 2.07% | C |
| DFW to LAS · Las Vegas | 452 | 70.0% | 65 min | 3.54% | C− |
| DFW to MCO · Orlando | 427 | 68.9% | 66 min | 2.81% | C |
| DFW to AUS · Austin | 425 | 67.3% | 73 min | 4.24% | C− |
| DFW to SFO · San Francisco | 401 | 48.5% | 68 min | 3.24% | F− |
| DFW to MIA · Miami | 398 | 73.3% | 99 min | 3.02% | C− |
| DFW to SAT · San Antonio | 390 | 65.0% | 70 min | 5.13% | C− |
| DFW to SAN · San Diego | 374 | 62.5% | 75 min | 2.14% | D |
| DFW to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 353 | 79.4% | 67 min | 3.40% | B− |
| DFW to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 329 | 71.2% | 89 min | 3.65% | C− |
| DFW to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 329 | 72.7% | 73 min | 3.04% | C− |
| DFW to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 323 | 66.2% | 59 min | 2.79% | C |
| DFW to XNA · Bentonvillethin sample | 317 | 78.4% | 80 min | 2.84% | B |
| DFW to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample | 312 | 77.2% | 76 min | 2.88% | B |
| DFW to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 305 | 81.6% | 87 min | 1.64% | B |
| DFW to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 301 | 77.5% | 73 min | 2.66% | B |
| DFW to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 297 | 77.5% | 77 min | 4.04% | B− |
| DFW to OKC · Oklahoma Citythin sample | 285 | 69.1% | 66 min | 4.56% | C− |
Delay causes
What held DFW up in May
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 534,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 15%National Airspace System
- 12%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 12% 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 6%, so this operation carries roughly 2.0 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 533,662 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.34%, against 0.92% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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.
10.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 7.1% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
What to do with this
Flying from DFW in May
For a May trip through DFW: expect 72.7% on time and 3.34% cancelled, going by May 2026. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.
Related
Where to go next
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW), the whole year
- 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 March73.4%
- DFW in April73.9%
- DFW in June63.6%
- DFW in July66.2%
- DFW in August73.5%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.