Route reliability record
DAY→DFW
Dayton to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 1,359
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 861 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 3 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 an hour and a half on average. That rests on 1,359 DAY to DFW flights, with a median arrival 14 minutes early.
Best time to fly DAY to DFW: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Thursday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.2% of the time and Thursday flights 82.9%, against 80.2% 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
80.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,320 completed flights
Avg delay
92 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.13%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
80.2% on time across 1,357 flights
These figures cover 1,359 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.4% 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 DAY to DFW
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 | 2 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| PSA Airlines | 1,357 | 80.2% | 92 min | 2.14% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on DAY 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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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 15 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am366 flights86.7%
- 8am–11am160 flights87.2%
- 11am–2pm361 flights78.9%
- 2pm–5pm139 flights78.5%
- 5pm–8pm333 flights72.0%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 87.2% of the time, against 72.0% for the evening window. That is 15 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 366 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DAY 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 DAY to DFW, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 87.2% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 72.0%, a wide gap of 15.2 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am86.7%
- 8–11am87.2%
- 11am–2pm78.9%
- 2–5pm78.5%
- 5–8pm72.0%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 1,359 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
June is the worst month at 75.0% on time, 12 points below July, the best at 86.8%. 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 123 flights.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 82.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 75.5%, a spread of 7 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 24,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 9%Extreme weather
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 24,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 24,010 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 87.2% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.13% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.74%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.4% 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 861 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 74.4% on time across 1,356 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,359 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: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 72.0% on time against 87.2% for the 8am–11am slot, and that 15 points is the largest single thing you control here. PSA Airlines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 1,320 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DAY to DFW questions
How often is DAY 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 19.8% of the 1,359 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is DAY to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
80.2% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 3 points in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on DAY to DFW?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 87.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 72.0%, 15 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 June delays on DAY to DFW?
June is the weakest month at 75.0% on time, compared with 86.8% in July. Across the year that is 12 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 DAY — the return legseparate record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- DAY to ORD, a related route72.7%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- DAY to ATL, a related route89.4%
- Envoy Air on-time record100.0%
- PSA Airlines on-time record80.2%
- 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. DAY to DFW and DFW to DAY 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.