Carrier route record
F9CLE→DFW
Frontier Airlines · Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 166
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 10%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Frontier Airlines.
Frontier on CLE to DFW sits in the middle of the pack with a C+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 166 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so Frontier on CLE to DFW runs 4 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 43 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
73.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 165 completed flights
Avg delay
60 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.60%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
74.8%
Every carrier on CLE to DFW, 1,653 flights
These figures cover 166 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Frontier against every carrier on CLE to DFW
Frontier flew 166 of the 1,653 flights on CLE to DFW, about 10% of it. Its 73.3% on time is 2 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 74.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 86.4% to PSA at 50.0%. 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 | 1,458 | 74.9% | 100 min | 2.81% | C |
| Frontier Airlines (this page)thin sample | 166 | 73.3% | 60 min | 0.60% | C+ |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 5 | 50.0% | 53 min | 20.00% | F− |
Departure window
When Frontier runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 20 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am26 flights—
- 8am–11am21 flights—
- 11am–2pm35 flights88.6%
- 2pm–5pm48 flights68.8%
- 5pm–8pm29 flights—
- 8pm–5am7 flights—
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 88.6% on time, ahead of 2pm–5pm at 68.8%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 48 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Frontier on CLE to DFW through the year
- Jul–Sep 202548 flights72.9%
- Oct–Dec 202533 flights78.8%
- Jan–Mar 202621 flights—
- Apr–Jun 202664 flights70.3%
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 73.3% on time across 166 flights.
Quarter by quarter Frontier on CLE to DFW held fairly steady: 72.9% in Jul–Sep 2025, 78.8% in Oct–Dec 2025 and 70.3% in Apr–Jun 2026. A spread of 9 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
Delay causes
Why Frontier runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 43% of the 2,623 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.
- 43%National Airspace System
- 31%Carrier
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 1%Extreme weather
43% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 1,131 minutes out of 2,623, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 2,623 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.60%, below the national 1.81% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% 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.
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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 81.2% on time across 166 flights, 8 points above 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 8 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 166 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking Frontier on CLE to DFW
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 166 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 73.3% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 165 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- CLE to DFW, every carrier
- Frontier on DFW to CLE, the return leg
- American Airlines on CLE to DFW74.9%
- Frontier Airlines network-wide record
- Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
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.