Route reliability record
ORF→DFW
Norfolk to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 968
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,212 mi
- Carriers
- 3
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 77.3%. The late ones land close to two hours behind schedule. That rests on 968 ORF to DFW flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
Best time to fly ORF to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Friday. Flights in that window arrived on time 85.4% of the time and Friday flights 83.5%, against 73.9% 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
73.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 932 completed flights
Avg delay
111 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.69%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
74.2% on time across 935 flights
These figures cover 968 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on ORF 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 | 935 | 74.2% | 113 min | 2.78% | C |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 22 | 68.2% | 75 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 11 | 60.0% | 54 min | 0.00% | D+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on ORF 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.
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
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 28 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am363 flights85.4%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm17 flights—
- 2pm–5pm364 flights72.8%
- 5pm–8pm224 flights57.3%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 50% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 57.3% on time, against 85.4% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 364 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ORF 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 ORF to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 85.4% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 57.3%, a wide gap of 28.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am85.4%
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm—
- 2–5pm72.8%
- 5–8pm57.3%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 19 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 63.9% on time, 19 points below January, the best at 82.8%. 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. June was the busiest month here, with 90 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 83.5% on time and Saturday the weakest at 67.2%, a spread of 16 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 49% of the 27,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%Carrier
- 36%Late-arriving aircraft
- 8%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
36% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 27,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 26,928 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 49%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 13,000 of the 27,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 2.69%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.4% 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 1,212 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 64.1% on time across 968 flights, 10 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 10 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 968 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in DFW after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 968 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 73.9% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 932 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ORF to DFW questions
How often is ORF 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 26.1% of the 968 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is ORF to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
73.9% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 3 points against it. That is worth a C on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on ORF to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 85.4% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 57.3%, 28 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 ORF to DFW?
June is the weakest month at 63.9% on time, compared with 82.8% in January. Across the year that is 19 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 ORF — the return legseparate record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- ORF to ATL, a related route85.1%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- ORF to CLT, a related route81.3%
- American Airlines on-time record74.2%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record68.2%
- Envoy Air on-time record60.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. ORF to DFW and DFW to ORF are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed ORF to DFW’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.