Route reliability record
ABQ→DFW
Albuquerque to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 2,269
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 569 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 2,269 ABQ to DFW flights, of which American Airlines flew 1,718 at 81.2% on time.
Best time to fly ABQ to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.6% of the time and Tuesday flights 85.3%, against 81.0% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
81.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,209 completed flights
Avg delay
106 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.42%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
81.2% on time across 1,718 flights
These figures cover 2,269 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on ABQ to DFW
The two carriers here are closely matched: half a point separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 1,718 | 81.2% | 120 min | 2.74% | B |
| Envoy Air | 499 | 80.8% | 69 min | 1.40% | B |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 52 | 76.5% | 55 min | 1.92% | B |
No carrier stands out. American tops the table at 81.2%, half a point clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
Flight by flight
Flights on ABQ to DFW
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Albuquerque to Dallas-Fort Worth
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. ABQ → DALAlbuquerque to Dallas | Southwest Airlines | 81.2% | 82.4% | 1.48% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 2. ABQ → DFWAlbuquerque to Dallas-Fort Worth | Envoy Air | 79.7% | 80.8% | 1.40% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 3. ABQ → DFWAlbuquerque to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 79.0% | 81.2% | 2.74% | 5am–8am, Fri | AA 9 16:48 |
| 4. SAF → DFWSanta Fe to Dallas-Fort Worth | SkyWest Airlines | 77.4% | 79.5% | 2.61% | 8am–11am, Wed | OO 6403 06:15 |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 26 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am574 flights91.6%
- 8am–11am694 flights84.8%
- 11am–2pm408 flights78.6%
- 2pm–5pm317 flights65.9%
- 5pm–8pm276 flights69.9%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.6% of the time, against 65.9% for the afternoon window. That is 26 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 694 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ABQ to DFW by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On ABQ to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.6% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 65.9%, a wide gap of 25.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.6%
- 8–11am84.8%
- 11am–2pm78.6%
- 2–5pm65.9%
- 5–8pm69.9%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 16 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
Delays peak in November, when the on-time rate falls to 72.4%. February is the strongest month at 88.3%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 16 points. July was the busiest month here, with 230 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 85.3% on time and Saturday the weakest at 75.7%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
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 45,000 reported delay minutes.
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 15%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 45,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 44,661 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 16,000 of the 45,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 2.42% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.22%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 569 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 69.0% on time across 2,266 flights, 12 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 12 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,269 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in DFW after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 88.3% on time and November 72.4%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of November before you think about anything else. 2,209 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ABQ to DFW questions
How often is ABQ to DFW delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.0% of the 2,269 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on ABQ to DFW?
American Airlines leads at 81.2% on time across 1,718 flights. Envoy Air is at the other end on 80.8%, a gap of half a point. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on ABQ to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.6% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 65.9%, 26 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are November delays on ABQ to DFW?
November is the weakest month at 72.4% on time, compared with 88.3% in February. Across the year that is 16 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- DFW to ABQ — the return legseparate record
- Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- American Airlines on ABQ to DFW81.2%
- Envoy Air on ABQ to DFW80.8%
- ABQ to PHX, a related route81.8%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- ABQ to DEN, a related route82.3%
- American Airlines on-time record81.2%
- Envoy Air on-time record80.8%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record76.5%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. ABQ to DFW and DFW to ABQ are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.