Carrier route record
AAIAD→DFW
American Airlines · Washington to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 849
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 43%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on IAD 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 close to two hours behind schedule. That rests on 849 flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on IAD to DFW from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
74.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 824 completed flights
Avg delay
114 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.47%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
76.7%
Every carrier on IAD to DFW, 1,961 flights
These figures cover 849 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
American against every carrier on IAD to DFW
American flew 849 of the 1,961 flights on IAD to DFW, about 43% of it. Its 74.4% on time is 2 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 76.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 80.0% to Republic at 66.7%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 928 | 80.0% | 81 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 849 | 74.4% | 114 min | 2.47% | C |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 175 | 70.8% | 164 min | 3.43% | C− |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 9 | 66.7% | 69 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Flight by flight
American flight numbers on IAD to DFW
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 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 21 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am363 flights83.6%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm123 flights82.6%
- 2pm–5pm27 flights—
- 5pm–8pm336 flights62.5%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 62.5% on time, against 83.6% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 363 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on IAD to DFW through the year
Delays peak in May, when the on-time rate falls to 60.9%. January is the strongest month at 84.9%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 24 points. June was the busiest month here, with 90 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 78.1% on time and Saturday the weakest at 68.7%, a spread of 9 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on IAD to DFW runs when it is late
American on IAD to DFW often beats the schedule: 349 of 824 completed flights, 42%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 211 late arrivals split 67 under half an hour, 58 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 86 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early349 flights42.4%
- Within 15 min264 flights32.0%
- 15–29 min late67 flights8.1%
- 30–59 min late58 flights7.0%
- 1–2 hours late45 flights5.5%
- 2+ hours late41 flights5.0%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 824 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
49 of 214 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 23% of them. In the other direction, 46 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at DFW.
The worst days
Worst days for American on IAD to DFW
The latest arrival of the period was on 25 June 2026, 25 hours 47 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.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 25 June 2026 | 25 hours 47 minutes | Carrier |
| 7 September 2025 | 21 hours 58 minutes | Carrier |
| 25 May 2026 | 20 hours 58 minutes | Carrier |
| 27 August 2026 | 16 hours 54 minutes | Carrier |
| 7 March 2026 | 15 hours 15 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 52% of the 24,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 52%Carrier
- 36%Late-arriving aircraft
- 10%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
36% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 24,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. The split is drawn from 24,063 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 52%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 12,000 of the 24,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 2.47% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.47%.
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 1,172 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 70.7% on time across 849 flights, 4 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 4 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 849 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 American on IAD to DFW
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 849 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 74.4% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 824 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- IAD to DFW, every carrier
- American on DFW to IAD, the return leg
- United Airlines on IAD to DFW80.0%
- Frontier Airlines on IAD to DFW70.8%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Washington Dulles International (IAD) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
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.