Route reliability record
DFW→LAX
Dallas-Fort Worth to Los Angeles
- Flights
- 6,184
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,235 mi
- Carriers
- 4
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, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 6,184 DFW to LAX flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 757 at 89.2% on time.
Best time to fly DFW to LAX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 86.9% of the time and Wednesday flights 79.4%, against 74.0% for the route overall.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 89.2% on time across 757 flights.
Key figures
On time
74.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 6,048 completed flights
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.15%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
89.2% on time across 757 flights
These figures cover 6,184 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.0% 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 LAX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 89.2% of the time; American Airlines manages 70.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 4,536 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 757 | 89.2% | 95 min | 1.59% | A |
| Spirit Airlines | 381 | 81.5% | 72 min | 3.67% | B− |
| Frontier Airlines | 510 | 79.2% | 78 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 4,536 | 70.2% | 64 min | 2.25% | C |
Spirit Airlines cancels 3.7% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Flights on DFW to LAX
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.
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.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Dallas-Fort Worth to Los Angeles
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. 1 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. DFW → LAXDallas-Fort Worth to Los Angeles | Delta Air Lines | 87.8% | 89.2% | 1.59% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 439 06:15 |
| 2. DFW → LAXDallas-Fort Worth to Los Angeles | Spirit Airlines | 78.5% | 81.5% | 3.67% | 8pm–5am, Tue | — |
| 3. DFW → LAXDallas-Fort Worth to Los Angeles | Frontier Airlines | 78.4% | 79.2% | 0.98% | 5am–8am, Thu | — |
| 4. DFW → SNADallas-Fort Worth to Santa Ana | American Airlines | 77.4% | 79.3% | 2.42% | 5am–8am, Fri (route) | — |
| 5. DFW → LAXDallas-Fort Worth to Los Angeles | American Airlines | 68.6% | 70.2% | 2.25% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
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 24 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,183 flights86.9%
- 8am–11am954 flights78.6%
- 11am–2pm982 flights76.2%
- 2pm–5pm1,246 flights71.2%
- 5pm–8pm776 flights64.8%
- 8pm–5am1,043 flights63.1%
Scale runs 55% to 90%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 63.1% on time, against 86.9% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 1,246 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DFW to LAX 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 LAX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 86.9% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 63.1%, a wide gap of 23.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am86.9%
- 8–11am78.6%
- 11am–2pm76.2%
- 2–5pm71.2%
- 5–8pm64.8%
- 8pm–5am63.1%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 16 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.
June is the worst month at 64.8% on time, 16 points below March, the best at 80.5%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 561 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 79.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.7%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 106,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 39%Carrier
- 10%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 106,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 105,602 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 39%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 42,000 of the 106,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 2.15% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.05%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.0% 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 1,235 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 74.9% on time across 6,178 flights, within about 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 6,184 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 LAX 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. March runs 80.5% on time and June 64.8%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 6,048 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DFW to LAX questions
How often is DFW to LAX 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 26.0% of the 6,184 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DFW to LAX?
Delta Air Lines leads at 89.2% on time across 757 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 70.2%, a gap of 19 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 LAX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 86.9% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 63.1%, 24 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 DFW to LAX?
June is the weakest month at 64.8% on time, compared with 80.5% in March. Across the year that is 16 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
- LAX to DFW — the return legseparate record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on DFW to LAX89.2%
- Spirit Airlines on DFW to LAX81.5%
- Frontier Airlines on DFW to LAX79.2%
- American Airlines on DFW to LAX70.2%
- DFW to ORD, a related route68.8%
- SFO to LAX, a related route70.9%
- DFW to ATL, a related route75.6%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record89.2%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record81.5%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record79.2%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DFW to LAX and LAX 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.