Route reliability record
DFW→IAD
Dallas-Fort Worth to Washington
- Flights
- 1,962
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,172 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 1,962 DFW to IAD flights, of which United Airlines flew 929 at 83.6% on time.
Best time to fly DFW to IAD: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.5% of the time and Wednesday flights 83.0%, against 77.4% 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
77.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,924 completed flights
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.73%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
83.6% on time across 929 flights
These figures cover 1,962 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.6% 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 DFW to IAD
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 83.6% of the time; American Airlines manages 70.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 849 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 929 | 83.6% | 80 min | 0.86% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 175 | 77.6% | 87 min | 2.86% | B |
| American Airlines | 849 | 70.7% | 74 min | 2.47% | C |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 9 | 55.6% | 104 min | 0.00% | D+ |
The spread between United and American is 13 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 13 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on DFW to IAD
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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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Dallas-Fort Worth to Washington
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. 3 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 25 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am462 flights89.5%
- 8am–11am62 flights77.4%
- 11am–2pm627 flights77.9%
- 2pm–5pm138 flights64.7%
- 5pm–8pm672 flights71.1%
- 8pm–5am1 flights—
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.5% of the time, against 64.7% for the afternoon window. That is 25 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 672 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DFW to IAD 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 DFW to IAD, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.5% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 64.7%, a wide gap of 24.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.5%
- 8–11am77.4%
- 11am–2pm77.9%
- 2–5pm64.7%
- 5–8pm71.1%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 22 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 67.0% on time, 22 points below January, the best at 88.8%. 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. June was the busiest month here, with 196 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.4%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 34,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 32%Carrier
- 17%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
45% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 34,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 33,544 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 89.5% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.73% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.20%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.6% 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 1,172 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 76.7% on time across 1,961 flights, within half a point 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 1,962 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 IAD 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 88.8% on time and July 67.0%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,924 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DFW to IAD questions
How often is DFW to IAD delayed?
Roughly 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 22.6% of the 1,962 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DFW to IAD?
United Airlines leads at 83.6% on time across 929 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 70.7%, a gap of 13 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on DFW to IAD?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.5% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 64.7%, 25 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 DFW to IAD?
July is the weakest month at 67.0% on time, compared with 88.8% in January. Across the year that is 22 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
- IAD to DFW — the return legseparate record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- Washington Dulles International (IAD) delay statistics
- United Airlines on DFW to IAD83.6%
- Frontier Airlines on DFW to IAD77.6%
- American Airlines on DFW to IAD70.7%
- DFW to ORD, a related route68.8%
- ATL to IAD, a related route76.4%
- DFW to ATL, a related route75.6%
- United Airlines on-time record83.6%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record77.6%
- American Airlines on-time record70.7%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. DFW to IAD and IAD to DFW 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.