Route reliability record
DAL→BWI
Dallas to Baltimore
- Flights
- 1,828
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,209 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route 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 77.3%. The late ones land about 55 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 1,828 DAL to BWI flights, with a median arrival right on schedule.
Best time to fly DAL to BWI: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.9% of the time and Tuesday flights 79.2%, against 73.8% 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
73.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,781 completed flights
Avg delay
55 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.86%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Southwest
73.8% on time across 1,828 flights
These figures cover 1,828 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. On-time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the same threshold the Department of Transportation uses in its own reports. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and counted separately, which is why the cancellation column matters on its own.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DAL to BWI
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 1,828 | 73.8% | 55 min | 1.86% | C |
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Dallas to Baltimore
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. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. DFW → IADDallas-Fort Worth to Washington | United Airlines | 82.9% | 83.6% | 0.86% | 5am–8am, Tue | UA 2639 07:25 |
| 2. DAL → BWIDallas to Baltimore | Southwest Airlines | 72.4% | 73.8% | 1.86% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 3. DFW → DCADallas-Fort Worth to Washington | American Airlines | 71.6% | 73.6% | 2.76% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 1177 09:23 |
| 4. DFW → IADDallas-Fort Worth to Washington | American Airlines | 69.0% | 70.7% | 2.47% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 5. DFW → BWIDallas-Fort Worth to Baltimore | American Airlines | 66.3% | 68.2% | 2.79% | 8am–11am, Tue | AA 2251 19:37 |
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 36 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am484 flights92.9%
- 8am–11am273 flights86.4%
- 11am–2pm283 flights68.1%
- 2pm–5pm343 flights58.7%
- 5pm–8pm274 flights62.4%
- 8pm–5am171 flights57.2%
Scale runs 50% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 57.2% on time, against 92.9% 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 484 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DAL to BWI 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 DAL to BWI, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.9% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 57.2%, a wide gap of 35.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.9%
- 8–11am86.4%
- 11am–2pm68.1%
- 2–5pm58.7%
- 5–8pm62.4%
- 8pm–5am57.2%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 26 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.
July is the worst month at 58.7% on time, 26 points below January, the best at 84.3%. 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. August was the busiest month here, with 175 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 79.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 66.1%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 25,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 38%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 25,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. The split is drawn from 25,449 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 38%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 9,734 of the 25,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.86% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.71%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,209 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 runs 75.8% on time across 1,794 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,828 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 BWI 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. January runs 84.3% on time and July 58.7%, a swing of 26 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,781 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DAL to BWI questions
How often is DAL to BWI delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 26.2% of the 1,828 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 55 minutes on average.
How reliable is DAL to BWI compared with the rest of the country?
73.8% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 4 points against it. That is worth a C on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on DAL to BWI?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.9% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 57.2%, 36 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 July delays on DAL to BWI?
July is the weakest month at 58.7% on time, compared with 84.3% in January. Across the year that is 26 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
- BWI to DAL — the return legseparate record
- Dallas Love Field (DAL) delay statistics
- Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (BWI) delay statistics
- DAL to HOU, a related route74.8%
- ATL to BWI, a related route75.2%
- DAL to ATL, a related route78.1%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record73.8%
- 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. DAL to BWI and BWI to DAL 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.