Carrier route record
AACLE→DFW
American Airlines · Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 1,422
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 88%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on CLE to DFW lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 1,422 flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on CLE to DFW from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
76.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,379 completed flights
Avg delay
98 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.32%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
76.1%
Every carrier on CLE to DFW, 1,615 flights
These figures cover 1,422 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on CLE to DFW
American flew 1,422 of the 1,615 flights on CLE to DFW, most of the route. Its 76.2% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 76.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 86.4% to Frontier at 74.1%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 24 | 86.4% | 37 min | 8.33% | A− |
| American Airlines (this page) | 1,422 | 76.2% | 98 min | 2.32% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 169 | 74.1% | 59 min | 1.18% | C |
Flight by flight
American flight numbers on CLE to DFW
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 30 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am428 flights85.6%
- 8am–11am163 flights83.2%
- 11am–2pm337 flights77.0%
- 2pm–5pm164 flights76.5%
- 5pm–8pm248 flights60.2%
- 8pm–5am82 flights55.8%
Scale runs 45% to 90%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 55.8% on time, against 85.6% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 428 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on CLE to DFW through the year
June is the worst month at 66.7% on time, 16 points below November, the best at 82.9%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. December was the busiest month here, with 131 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.8% on time and Saturday the weakest at 69.1%, a spread of 12 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on CLE to DFW runs when it is late
American on CLE to DFW often beats the schedule: 542 of 1,379 completed flights, 39%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 328 late arrivals split 101 under half an hour, 93 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 134 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early542 flights39.3%
- Within 15 min509 flights36.9%
- 15–29 min late101 flights7.3%
- 30–59 min late93 flights6.7%
- 1–2 hours late67 flights4.9%
- 2+ hours late67 flights4.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 1,379 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
66 of 330 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 20% of them. 64 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on CLE to DFW
The latest arrival of the period was on 4 March 2026, 28 hours 14 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 4 March 2026 | 28 hours 14 minutes | Carrier |
| 8 September 2025 | 24 hours 16 minutes | Carrier |
| 29 October 2025 | 21 hours 44 minutes | Carrier |
| 16 July 2026 | 15 hours 53 minutes | Carrier |
| 13 March 2026 | 14 hours 56 minutes | Extreme weather |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 32,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 32,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 32,050 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 37%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 12,000 of the 32,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 2.32% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.70%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
9.7% 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 1,021 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 63.7% on time across 1,420 flights, 13 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 13 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,422 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.
What to do with this
Booking American on CLE to DFW
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. November runs 82.9% on time and June 66.7%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 1,379 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- CLE to DFW, every carrier
- American on DFW to CLE, the return leg
- Frontier Airlines on CLE to DFW74.1%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
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.