Carrier route record
AADFW→FLL
American Airlines · Dallas-Fort Worth to Fort Lauderdale
- Flights
- 2,031
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 65%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on DFW to FLL sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 9 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 2,031 flights, with a median arrival right on schedule.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so American on DFW to FLL runs 9 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 90 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
68.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,974 completed flights
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.61%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
69.7%
Every carrier on DFW to FLL, 3,143 flights
These figures cover 2,031 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.7% 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 DFW to FLL
American flew 2,031 of the 3,143 flights on DFW to FLL, most of the route. Its 68.3% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 69.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from JetBlue at 75.8% to Frontier at 67.5%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 311 | 75.8% | 113 min | 2.57% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 596 | 72.4% | 69 min | 5.03% | C− |
| American Airlines (this page) | 2,031 | 68.3% | 67 min | 2.61% | C |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 205 | 67.5% | 57 min | 1.95% | C |
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 45 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am375 flights85.4%
- 8am–11am376 flights74.8%
- 11am–2pm456 flights66.2%
- 2pm–5pm199 flights56.3%
- 5pm–8pm548 flights61.9%
- 8pm–5am77 flights40.8%
Scale runs 30% to 90%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 40.8% on time, against 85.4% 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 548 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on DFW to FLL through the year
July is the worst month at 53.6% on time, 27 points below February, the best at 80.4%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 196 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 75.0% on time and Saturday the weakest at 62.5%, a spread of 13 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on DFW to FLL runs when it is late
The 626 late arrivals split 181 under half an hour, 214 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 231 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early353 flights17.9%
- Within 15 min995 flights50.4%
- 15–29 min late181 flights9.2%
- 30–59 min late214 flights10.8%
- 1–2 hours late142 flights7.2%
- 2+ hours late89 flights4.5%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 1,974 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
115 of 671 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 17% of them. 70 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on DFW to FLL
The latest arrival of the period was on 25 January 2026, 10 hours 26 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as extreme weather. The five worst days are spread across January, June and November, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 25 January 2026 | 10 hours 26 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 21 June 2026 | 10 hours 19 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 27 January 2026 | 7 hours 34 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 24 November 2025 | 7 hours 12 minutes | Carrier |
| 19 June 2026 | 6 hours 20 minutes | Extreme weather |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 50% of the 42,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 42,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 42,078 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 85.4% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.61%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
11.7% 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 1,119 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 74.0% on time across 2,032 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,031 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 DFW to FLL
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 80.4% on time and July 53.6%, a swing of 27 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,974 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DFW to FLL, every carrier
- American on FLL to DFW, the return leg
- JetBlue Airways on DFW to FLL75.8%
- Spirit Airlines on DFW to FLL72.4%
- Frontier Airlines on DFW to FLL67.5%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.