Route reliability record
FAT→DFW
Fresno to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 1,351
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,313 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route lands a B, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 1,351 FAT to DFW flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Best time to fly FAT to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Sunday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.6% of the time and Sunday flights 83.7%, against 80.9% 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
80.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,301 completed flights
Avg delay
94 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.81%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
80.9% on time across 1,351 flights
These figures cover 1,351 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 9 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on FAT 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 1,351 | 80.9% | 94 min | 2.81% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on FAT 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.
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.
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 30 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am465 flights88.6%
- 8am–11am323 flights84.1%
- 11am–2pm290 flights74.8%
- 2pm–5pm162 flights58.2%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am111 flights86.9%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.6% of the time, against 58.2% for the afternoon window. That is 30 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 465 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter FAT 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 FAT to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.6% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 58.2%, a wide gap of 30.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.6%
- 8–11am84.1%
- 11am–2pm74.8%
- 2–5pm58.2%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am86.9%
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 17 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 71.0% on time, 17 points below February, the best at 87.7%. 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 149 flights.
Across the week, Sunday is the strongest day at 83.7% on time and Saturday the weakest at 78.8%, a spread of 5 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 61% of the 24,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 61%Carrier
- 27%Late-arriving aircraft
- 9%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 61%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 14,000 of the 24,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 23,506 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.81%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
7.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,313 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 65.3% on time across 1,351 flights, 16 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 16 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,351 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 2.81% 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. 1,301 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
FAT to DFW questions
How often is FAT 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 19.1% of the 1,351 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is FAT to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
80.9% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 4 points in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on FAT to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.6% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 58.2%, 30 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 FAT to DFW?
June is the weakest month at 71.0% on time, compared with 87.7% in February. Across the year that is 17 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 FAT — the return legseparate record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- FAT to SAN, a related route73.2%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- FAT to LAS, a related route81.6%
- American Airlines on-time record80.9%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Direction matters. FAT to DFW and DFW to FAT are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed FAT to DFW’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.