Route reliability record
PNS→DFW
Pensacola to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 1,706
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 604 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 1,706 PNS to DFW flights, of which American Airlines flew 1,087 at 73.0% on time.
Best time to fly PNS to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 84.3% of the time and Tuesday flights 78.5%, against 73.7% 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
73.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,644 completed flights
Avg delay
117 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.34%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
73.0% on time across 1,087 flights
These figures cover 1,706 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 13.0% 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 PNS to DFW
The two carriers here are closely matched: 3 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 237 | 81.8% | 72 min | 0.42% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 1,087 | 73.0% | 122 min | 2.85% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 382 | 70.1% | 121 min | 6.54% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.5% 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.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Pensacola 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. 1 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PNS → DFWPensacola to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 70.9% | 73.0% | 2.85% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 2. VPS → DFWValparaiso to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 68.7% | 70.6% | 2.65% | 5am–8am, Wed | AA 2501 16:00 |
| 3. PNS → DFWPensacola to Dallas-Fort Worth | PSA Airlines | 65.5% | 70.1% | 6.54% | 5pm–8pm, Fri | — |
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 3 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am365 flights84.3%
- 8am–11am138 flights83.9%
- 11am–2pm386 flights77.4%
- 2pm–5pm434 flights64.3%
- 5pm–8pm383 flights66.5%
- 8pm–5am—
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 84.3% of the time, against 64.3% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 434 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PNS 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 PNS to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 84.3% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 64.3%, a wide gap of 20.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am84.3%
- 8–11am83.9%
- 11am–2pm77.4%
- 2–5pm64.3%
- 5–8pm66.5%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 29 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 56.5% on time, 29 points below January, the best at 85.7%. 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 208 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 78.5% on time and Saturday the weakest at 65.1%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 50% of the 51,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 12%Extreme weather
- 7%National Airspace System
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 12% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 1.9 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 50,580 reported delay minutes.
50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 51,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 4 to one.
Cancellations run at 3.34%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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
13.0% 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 604 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 67.5% on time across 1,706 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,706 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 delay figures matter less here than the 3.34% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 1,644 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PNS to DFW questions
How often is PNS 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 26.3% of the 1,706 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on PNS to DFW?
American Airlines leads at 73.0% on time across 1,087 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 70.1%, a gap of 3 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 PNS to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 84.3% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 64.3%, 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 June delays on PNS to DFW?
June is the weakest month at 56.5% on time, compared with 85.7% in January. Across the year that is 29 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 PNS — the return legseparate record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- Envoy Air on PNS to DFW81.8%
- American Airlines on PNS to DFW73.0%
- PSA Airlines on PNS to DFW70.1%
- PNS to ATL, a related route88.8%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- PNS to CLT, a related route83.5%
- Envoy Air on-time record81.8%
- American Airlines on-time record73.0%
- PSA Airlines on-time record70.1%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. PNS to DFW and DFW to PNS 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.