Carrier route record

AAFLL→DFW

American Airlines · Fort Lauderdale to Dallas-Fort Worth

Flights: 2,032
Period: September 2025 to August 2026
Share of route: 65%
Carriers: 4

Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.

American on FLL to DFW 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 an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 2,032 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on FLL to DFW from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

74.0%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,966 completed flights

Avg delay

98 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

2.66%

National rate is 1.89%

Whole route

72.1%

Every carrier on FLL to DFW, 3,149 flights

These figures cover 2,032 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.

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Carrier by carrier

American against every carrier on FLL to DFW

American flew 2,032 of the 3,149 flights on FLL to DFW, most of the route. Its 74.0% on time is 2 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 72.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 74.0% to Frontier at 57.1%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.

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.

On-time performance by carrier on FLL to DFW
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
American Airlines (this page)	2,032	74.0%	98 min	2.66%	C
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	312	72.0%	72 min	2.24%	C
Spirit Airlines	600	70.7%	65 min	3.50%	C−
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	205	57.1%	67 min	3.41%	D−

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Departure window

When American runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 35 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.

5am–8am492 flights89.5%
8am–11am208 flights86.3%
11am–2pm577 flights78.6%
2pm–5pm288 flights54.7%
5pm–8pm467 flights57.8%
8pm–5am—

Scale runs 45% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.5% of the time, against 54.7% for the afternoon window. That is 35 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 577 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

American on FLL to DFW through the year

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.December best, July worst

July is the worst month at 64.9% on time, 16 points below December, the best at 81.3%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 197 flights.

Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 82.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 64.3%, a spread of 18 points.

Arrival by arrival

How late American on FLL to DFW runs when it is late

American on FLL to DFW often beats the schedule: 637 of 1,966 completed flights, 32%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 512 late arrivals split 128 under half an hour, 156 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 228 an hour or more.

15+ min early637 flights32.4%
Within 15 min817 flights41.6%
15–29 min late128 flights6.5%
30–59 min late156 flights7.9%
1–2 hours late130 flights6.6%
2+ hours late98 flights5.0%

Scale runs 0% to 100%.

Share of 1,966 completed flights by arrival against schedule.

107 of 535 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 20% of them. 84 flights left on time and still arrived late.

The worst days

Worst days for American on FLL to DFW

The latest arrival of the period was on 14 March 2026, 28 hours 18 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on four of the five worst days.

The latest arrivals of American on FLL to DFW in the period
Date	Arrived late by	Largest filed cause
14 March 2026	28 hours 18 minutes	Carrier
30 November 2025	24 hours 41 minutes	Carrier
18 February 2026	23 hours 7 minutes	Carrier
29 December 2025	21 hours 24 minutes	Carrier
20 June 2026	15 hours 39 minutes	Extreme weather

Delay causes

Why American runs late on this route

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 50,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
41%
Carrier
36%
National Airspace System
13%
Extreme weather
10%
Security
0%

41% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 50,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 4 to one. The split is drawn from 50,157 reported delay minutes.

The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 18,000 of the 50,000 delay minutes reported here.

Cancellations run at 2.66%, against 1.89% 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 costs

11.6% 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 1,119 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 68.3% on time across 2,031 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 2,032 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.

What to do with this

Booking American on FLL to DFW

Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. December runs 81.3% on time and July 64.9%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,966 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated 22 October 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures