Route reliability record
LAX→DFW
Los Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 72,683
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Distance
- 1,232 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 6 points worse than the national rate of 75.9%. The late ones land roughly 55 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 72,683 flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes late.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 75.9%, so this route runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 58 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
70.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 71,079 completed flights
Avg delay
53 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.87%
National rate is 2.23%
Best carrier
JetBlue
70.1% on time across 72,683 flights
These figures cover 73,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on LAX 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airways | 72,683 | 70.1% | 54 min | 1.87% | C |
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 13 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am11,266 flights76.6%
- 8am–11am14,900 flights73.1%
- 11am–2pm13,446 flights70.1%
- 2pm–5pm12,720 flights66.6%
- 5pm–8pm13,083 flights63.1%
- 8pm–5am7,268 flights75.6%
Scale runs 55% to 80%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 63.1% on time, against 76.6% 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.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 72,683 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
The year is unusually even here, with only 3 points between the best and worst months. July is the softest at 68.5%, but the seasonal effect is small enough that it should not drive when you travel.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 71.9% on time and Saturday the weakest at 67.5%. 4 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 47% of the 1.13 million delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 47%National Airspace System
- 32%Late-arriving aircraft
- 15%Carrier
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
47% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 537,000 minutes out of 1.13 million, against a national NAS share of 30%.
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 76.6% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.87% against a national 2.23%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.34%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.6% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 1,232 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 74.6% on time across 56,702 flights, 5 points above 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 5 points of difference.
72,683 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 63.1% on time against 76.6% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 13 points is the largest single thing you control here. JetBlue Airways is the strongest operator if the fares are close.
Common questions
LAX to DFW questions
How often is LAX to DFW delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 29.9% of the 72,683 flights in this analysis, against 24.1% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average.
How reliable is LAX to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
70.1% of flights arrive on time here against a national 75.9%, a difference of 6 points against it. That is worth a C on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on LAX to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 76.6% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 63.1%, 13 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 LAX to DFW?
July is the weakest month at 68.5% on time, compared with 71.1% in September. Across the year that is 3 points between the best and worst months. The seasonal swing is modest enough that it should not decide when you travel.
Related
Where to go next
- DFW to LAX — the return legseparate record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- JetBlue Airways on-time record70.1%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 11.3 million flight records
Direction matters. LAX to DFW and DFW to LAX are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.