Route reliability record
EWR→DFW
Newark to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 3,631
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,372 mi
- Carriers
- 5
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.4% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about four flights in five arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 3,631 EWR to DFW flights, of which American Airlines flew 1,440 at 80.1% on time.
Best time to fly EWR to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.9% of the time and Tuesday flights 84.2%, against 78.6% 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
78.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,490 completed flights
Avg delay
93 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.36%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
80.1% on time across 1,440 flights
These figures cover 3,631 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.3% 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 EWR to DFW
The two carriers here are closely matched: half a point separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 25 | 87.0% | 67 min | 4.00% | A− |
| American Airlines | 1,440 | 80.1% | 104 min | 4.10% | B− |
| United Airlines | 1,805 | 79.5% | 74 min | 2.66% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 118 | 70.4% | 243 min | 1.69% | C |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 243 | 66.2% | 79 min | 4.94% | C− |
American Airlines cancels 4.1% 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 EWR 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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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Newark to Dallas-Fort Worth
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. EWR → DFWNewark to Dallas-Fort Worth | United Airlines | 77.4% | 79.5% | 2.66% | 5am–8am, Tue | UA 454 09:00 |
| 2. EWR → DFWNewark to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 76.8% | 80.1% | 4.10% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 2728 06:00 |
| 3. JFK → DFWNew York to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 75.1% | 77.2% | 2.72% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 1953 11:00 |
| 4. LGA → DALNew York to Dallas | Southwest Airlines | 69.7% | 72.7% | 4.17% | 5am–8am, Fri | — |
| 5. LGA → DFWNew York to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 67.7% | 71.2% | 4.92% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 1987 07:30 |
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 half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am618 flights91.9%
- 8am–11am699 flights83.4%
- 11am–2pm876 flights77.8%
- 2pm–5pm581 flights73.6%
- 5pm–8pm619 flights68.0%
- 8pm–5am238 flights73.0%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.9% of the time, against 68.0% for the evening window. That is 24 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 876 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter EWR 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 EWR to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 68.0%, a wide gap of 23.9 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.9%
- 8–11am83.4%
- 11am–2pm77.8%
- 2–5pm73.6%
- 5–8pm68.0%
- 8pm–5am73.0%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 13 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 72.6% on time, 13 points below April, the best at 85.1%. 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 327 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.2% on time and Saturday the weakest at 72.6%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 69,000 reported delay minutes.
- 39%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 24%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
39% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 69,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 69,402 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 91.9% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.36%, 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
9.3% 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 1,372 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 72.9% on time across 3,633 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 3,631 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 3.36% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 3,490 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
EWR to DFW questions
How often is EWR to DFW delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.4% of the 3,631 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on EWR to DFW?
American Airlines leads at 80.1% on time across 1,440 flights. United Airlines is at the other end on 79.5%, a gap of half a point. 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 EWR to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.0%, 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 July delays on EWR to DFW?
July is the weakest month at 72.6% on time, compared with 85.1% in April. Across the year that is 13 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 EWR — the return legseparate record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- American Airlines on EWR to DFW80.1%
- United Airlines on EWR to DFW79.5%
- Frontier Airlines on EWR to DFW70.4%
- Spirit Airlines on EWR to DFW66.2%
- EWR to MCO, a related route77.9%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- EWR to ATL, a related route76.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record87.0%
- American Airlines on-time record80.1%
- United Airlines on-time record79.5%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. EWR to DFW and DFW to EWR 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.