Route reliability record
LAX→DFW
Los Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 6,178
- Period
- September 2025 to August 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, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 6,178 LAX to DFW flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 757 at 85.4% on time.
Best time to fly LAX to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 84.8% of the time and Wednesday flights 80.0%, against 74.9% for the route overall.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 85.4% on time across 757 flights.
Key figures
On time
74.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 6,006 completed flights
Avg delay
79 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.22%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
85.4% on time across 757 flights
These figures cover 6,178 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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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 85.4% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 70.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 383 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 757 | 85.4% | 75 min | 1.45% | A |
| American Airlines | 4,528 | 73.7% | 80 min | 2.23% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 510 | 72.6% | 88 min | 1.76% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 383 | 70.8% | 59 min | 4.18% | C− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 4.2% 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.
Flight by flight
Flights on LAX to DFW
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Los Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 3 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. LAX → DFWLos Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth | Delta Air Lines | 84.2% | 85.4% | 1.45% | 5am–8am, Fri | DL 521 07:35 |
| 2. ONT → DFWOntario to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 79.8% | 81.9% | 2.58% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 1412 06:10 |
| 3. BUR → DFWBurbank to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 79.8% | 81.9% | 2.61% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 2599 07:00 |
| 4. SNA → DFWSanta Ana to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 79.6% | 81.8% | 2.69% | 5am–8am, Thu (route) | AA 1382 06:45 |
| 5. LAX → DFWLos Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 72.1% | 73.7% | 2.23% | 5am–8am, Wed | AA 2746 07:00 |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
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 15 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am901 flights84.8%
- 8am–11am1,329 flights79.3%
- 11am–2pm588 flights65.6%
- 2pm–5pm1,121 flights65.1%
- 5pm–8pm1,255 flights72.8%
- 8pm–5am984 flights79.1%
Scale runs 55% to 90%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 84.8% of the time, against 65.1% 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 1,329 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter LAX to DFW by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On LAX to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 84.8% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 65.1%, a wide gap of 19.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am84.8%
- 8–11am79.3%
- 11am–2pm65.6%
- 2–5pm65.1%
- 5–8pm72.8%
- 8pm–5am79.1%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
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.
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 559 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Saturday the weakest at 71.1%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 119,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 35%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 119,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 25 to one. The split is drawn from 118,589 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 42,000 of the 119,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 2.22% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.57%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
8.7% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
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.
The return leg runs 74.0% on time across 6,184 flights, within about a point 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 6,178 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in DFW after this flight
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. 6,006 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 arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 25.1% of the 6,178 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on LAX to DFW?
Delta Air Lines leads at 85.4% on time across 757 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 70.8%, a gap of 15 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 84.8% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 65.1%, 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.
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
- Delta Air Lines on LAX to DFW85.4%
- American Airlines on LAX to DFW73.7%
- Frontier Airlines on LAX to DFW72.6%
- Spirit Airlines on LAX to DFW70.8%
- LAX to SFO, a related route60.1%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- LAX to JFK, a related route77.5%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record85.4%
- American Airlines on-time record73.7%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record72.6%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.
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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.