Route reliability record
DFW→LEX
Dallas-Fort Worth to Lexington
- Flights
- 1,216
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 785 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 77.6%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 1,216 DFW to LEX flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
Best time to fly DFW to LEX: a 11am–2pm departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 83.6% of the time and Tuesday flights 80.8%, against 74.7% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, 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
74.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,183 completed flights
Avg delay
81 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.63%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Envoy
78.6% on time across 585 flights
These figures cover 1,216 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DFW to LEX
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 32 | 96.9% | 27 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Envoy Air | 585 | 78.6% | 53 min | 1.71% | B |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 281 | 75.2% | 107 min | 5.34% | B− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 318 | 64.8% | 97 min | 2.20% | D |
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 16 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am353 flights81.4%
- 11am–2pm70 flights83.6%
- 2pm–5pm311 flights73.2%
- 5pm–8pm316 flights68.1%
- 8pm–5am166 flights72.0%
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 83.6% on time, ahead of 5pm–8pm at 68.1%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 353 flights scheduled in it.
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.
October is the best month on the calendar at 82.9% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. October was the busiest month here, with 148 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.8% on time and Monday the weakest at 67.5%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 57% of the 24,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 57%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
57% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 24,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 24,164 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.63%, against 1.81% 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 actually costs
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 785 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg runs 77.0% on time across 1,216 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 1,216 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 LEX 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. October runs 82.9% on time and November 60.7%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of November before you think about anything else. 1,183 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DFW to LEX questions
How often is DFW to LEX 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 25.3% of the 1,216 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is DFW to LEX compared with the rest of the country?
74.7% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.6%, a difference of 3 points against it. That is worth a C on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on DFW to LEX?
The 11am–2pm departure window is the strongest at 83.6% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.1%, 16 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 November delays on DFW to LEX?
November is the weakest month at 60.7% on time, compared with 82.9% in October. 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
- LEX to DFW — the return legseparate record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- Envoy Air on DFW to LEX78.6%
- PSA Airlines on DFW to LEX75.2%
- American Airlines on DFW to LEX64.8%
- DFW to ORD, a related route67.6%
- ATL to LEX, a related route85.0%
- DFW to LGA, a related route67.1%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record96.9%
- Envoy Air on-time record78.6%
- PSA Airlines on-time record75.2%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DFW to LEX and LEX 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.