Route reliability record
DSM→DFW
Des Moines to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 1,440
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 624 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.6% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 1,440 DSM to DFW flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
Best time to fly DSM to DFW: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.4% of the time and Tuesday flights 81.9%, against 74.3% 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
74.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,380 completed flights
Avg delay
100 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.61%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
69.7% on time across 971 flights
These figures cover 1,440 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.7% 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 DSM 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 | 299 | 88.4% | 67 min | 2.01% | A |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 10 | 80.0% | 78 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 160 | 75.7% | 97 min | 4.38% | B− |
| American Airlines | 971 | 69.7% | 105 min | 4.02% | C− |
Flight by flight
Flights on DSM 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 32 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am367 flights84.8%
- 8am–11am162 flights91.4%
- 11am–2pm198 flights77.4%
- 2pm–5pm362 flights59.1%
- 5pm–8pm351 flights68.8%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 91.4% of the time, against 59.1% for the afternoon window. That is 32 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 367 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DSM 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 DSM to DFW, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 91.4% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 59.1%, a wide gap of 32.3 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am84.8%
- 8–11am91.4%
- 11am–2pm77.4%
- 2–5pm59.1%
- 5–8pm68.8%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 50% 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.
June is the worst month at 62.5% on time, 22 points below August, the best at 84.0%. 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. January was the busiest month here, with 123 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 81.9% on time and Monday the weakest at 68.5%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 68% of the 35,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 68%Late-arriving aircraft
- 15%Carrier
- 9%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
68% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 35,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. The split is drawn from 35,423 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 91.4% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.61%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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
12.7% 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 624 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 66.4% on time across 1,438 flights, 8 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 8 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,440 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: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.61% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 1,380 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DSM to DFW questions
How often is DSM to DFW 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 25.7% of the 1,440 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is DSM to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
74.3% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, 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 DSM to DFW?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 91.4% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 59.1%, 32 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 DSM to DFW?
June is the weakest month at 62.5% on time, compared with 84.0% in August. 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
- DFW to DSM — the return legseparate record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- Envoy Air on DSM to DFW88.4%
- PSA Airlines on DSM to DFW75.7%
- American Airlines on DSM to DFW69.7%
- DSM to ORD, a related route73.6%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- DSM to DEN, a related route83.5%
- Envoy Air on-time record88.4%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record80.0%
- PSA Airlines on-time record75.7%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DSM to DFW and DFW to DSM 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.