Carrier route record
NKFLL→DFW
Spirit Airlines · Fort Lauderdale to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 600
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 19%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Spirit Airlines.
Spirit on FLL to DFW sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 7 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 600 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so Spirit on FLL to DFW runs 7 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 66 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
70.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 576 completed flights
Avg delay
65 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.50%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
72.1%
Every carrier on FLL to DFW, 3,149 flights
These figures cover 600 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Spirit against every carrier on FLL to DFW
Spirit flew 600 of the 3,149 flights on FLL to DFW, about 19% of it. Its 70.7% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 72.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three 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.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 2,032 | 74.0% | 98 min | 2.66% | C |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 312 | 72.0% | 72 min | 2.24% | C |
| Spirit Airlines (this page) | 600 | 70.7% | 65 min | 3.50% | C− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 205 | 57.1% | 67 min | 3.41% | D− |
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
When Spirit runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 41 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am199 flights88.4%
- 8am–11am19 flights—
- 11am–2pm16 flights—
- 2pm–5pm33 flights—
- 5pm–8pm92 flights47.7%
- 8pm–5am241 flights64.8%
Scale runs 40% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 47.7% on time, against 88.4% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 241 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Spirit on FLL to DFW through the year
October is the best month on the calendar at 84.8% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 93 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 82.3% on time and Monday the weakest at 59.1%, a spread of 23 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Spirit on FLL to DFW runs when it is late
Spirit on FLL to DFW often beats the schedule: 185 of 576 completed flights, 32%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 169 late arrivals split 47 under half an hour, 62 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 60 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early185 flights32.1%
- Within 15 min222 flights38.5%
- 15–29 min late47 flights8.2%
- 30–59 min late62 flights10.8%
- 1–2 hours late33 flights5.7%
- 2+ hours late27 flights4.7%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 576 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
55 of 205 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 27% of them. 19 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Spirit on FLL to DFW
The latest arrival of the period was on 22 March 2026, 5 hours 45 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. Three of the five worst days fell in March 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 22 March 2026 | 5 hours 45 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 16 March 2026 | 5 hours 30 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 15 March 2026 | 3 hours 40 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 28 September 2025 | 3 hours 35 minutes | Carrier |
| 8 September 2025 | 3 hours 34 minutes | Extreme weather |
Delay causes
Why Spirit 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 11,000 reported delay minutes.
- 38%Carrier
- 31%National Airspace System
- 26%Late-arriving aircraft
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 38%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,228 of the 11,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 11,001 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.50%, 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 costs
10.4% 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 runs 72.4% on time across 596 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.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 600 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking Spirit on FLL to DFW
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.50% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; 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. 576 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- FLL to DFW, every carrier
- Spirit on DFW to FLL, the return leg
- American Airlines on FLL to DFW74.0%
- JetBlue Airways on FLL to DFW72.0%
- Frontier Airlines on FLL to DFW57.1%
- Spirit Airlines network-wide record
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.