Route reliability record

LAX→DFW

Los Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth

Flights: 6,231
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Distance: 1,235 mi
Carriers: 4

This route 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 77.6%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 6,231 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 718 at 83.6% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 83.6% on time across 718 flights.

On time

74.2%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 6,040 completed flights

Avg delay

90 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

2.44%

National rate is 1.81%

Best carrier

Delta

83.6% on time across 718 flights

These figures cover 6,231 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.1% 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

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 83.6% of the time; American Airlines manages 72.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 4,563 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance by carrier on LAX to DFW
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Delta Air Lines	718	83.6%	80 min	1.81%	B
Frontier Airlines	447	74.1%	94 min	1.57%	C
Spirit Airlines	503	74.0%	63 min	3.38%	C−
American Airlines	4,563	72.7%	93 min	2.52%	C

Spirit Airlines cancels 3.4% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.

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 20 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am863 flights82.3%
8am–11am1,326 flights76.9%
11am–2pm675 flights63.4%
2pm–5pm1,089 flights62.7%
5pm–8pm1,209 flights75.7%
8pm–5am1,069 flights80.8%

Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 82.3% of the time, against 62.7% for the afternoon window. That is 20 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 1,326 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

When delays peak on this route

This route's year swings by 16 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.

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.April best, November worst

April is the best month on the calendar at 81.6% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. July was the busiest month here, with 565 flights.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 79.2% on time and Saturday the weakest at 69.0%. 10 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. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 140,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
43%
Carrier
41%
National Airspace System
14%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 140,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 20 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 140,069 reported delay minutes.

The largest share of delay minutes, 41%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 57,000 of the 140,000 delay minutes reported here.

Cancellations sit at 2.44% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.63%.

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. 9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% 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 1,235 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 runs 72.1% on time across 6,238 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.

The sample behind these figures is 6,231 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 this route

Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 81.6% on time and November 65.9%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of November before you think about anything else. 6,040 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Common questions

LAX to DFW questions

How often is LAX to DFW delayed?

About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 25.8% of the 6,231 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.

Which airline is most reliable on LAX to DFW?

Delta Air Lines leads at 83.6% on time across 718 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 72.7%, a gap of 11 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.

What time of day has the fewest delays on LAX to DFW?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 82.3% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 62.7%, 20 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 November delays on LAX to DFW?

November is the weakest month at 65.9% on time, compared with 81.6% in April. Across the year that is 16 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.

Where to go next

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, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures