Route reliability record
ONT→DFW
Ontario to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 2,274
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,188 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 2,274 ONT to DFW flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Best time to fly ONT to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.1% of the time and Tuesday flights 83.6%, against 80.8% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
80.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,203 completed flights
Avg delay
96 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.42%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
81.9% on time across 1,940 flights
These figures cover 2,274 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 9 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on ONT 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 1,940 | 81.9% | 104 min | 2.58% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 334 | 74.8% | 64 min | 1.50% | C |
Flight by flight
Flights on ONT 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 Ontario 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. 4 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 21 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am679 flights90.1%
- 8am–11am390 flights80.1%
- 11am–2pm444 flights76.5%
- 2pm–5pm422 flights70.4%
- 5pm–8pm77 flights68.8%
- 8pm–5am262 flights85.3%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.1% of the time, against 68.8% for the evening window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 679 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ONT 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 ONT to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.1% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 68.8%, a wide gap of 21.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.1%
- 8–11am80.1%
- 11am–2pm76.5%
- 2–5pm70.4%
- 5–8pm68.8%
- 8pm–5am85.3%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 12 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.
June is the worst month at 75.9% on time, 12 points below April, the best at 88.2%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. July was the busiest month here, with 214 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 83.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 77.3%, a spread of 6 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 46% of the 41,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Carrier
- 40%Late-arriving aircraft
- 12%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
40% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 41,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 19 to one. The split is drawn from 40,796 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 46%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 19,000 of the 41,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 2.42% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.70%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.4% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,188 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 71.7% on time across 2,274 flights, 9 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 9 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,274 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 88.2% on time and June 75.9%, a swing of 12 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 2,203 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ONT to DFW questions
How often is ONT to DFW delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.2% of the 2,274 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is ONT to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
80.8% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 4 points in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on ONT to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.8%, 21 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 June delays on ONT to DFW?
June is the weakest month at 75.9% on time, compared with 88.2% in April. Across the year that is 12 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 ONT — the return legseparate record
- Ontario International (ONT) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- American Airlines on ONT to DFW81.9%
- Frontier Airlines on ONT to DFW74.8%
- ONT to PHX, a related route82.4%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- ONT to DEN, a related route81.8%
- American Airlines on-time record81.9%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record74.8%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. ONT to DFW and DFW to ONT 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.