Route reliability record
PSP→DFW
Palm Springs to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 997
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,126 mi
- Carriers
- 1
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 close to two hours on average. That rests on 997 PSP to DFW flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
Best time to fly PSP to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Friday. Flights in that window arrived on time 93.4% of the time and Friday flights 88.6%, 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 960 completed flights
Avg delay
108 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.01%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
80.8% on time across 997 flights
These figures cover 997 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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 PSP 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 | 997 | 80.8% | 108 min | 3.01% | B− |
Flight by flight
Flights on PSP 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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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–8am365 flights93.4%
- 8am–11am35 flights74.3%
- 11am–2pm375 flights74.2%
- 2pm–5pm222 flights72.4%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 65% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 93.4% of the time, against 72.4% for the afternoon 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 375 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PSP 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 PSP to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.4% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 72.4%, a wide gap of 21.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.4%
- 8–11am74.3%
- 11am–2pm74.2%
- 2–5pm72.4%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 60% to 100%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
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.
Delays peak in March, when the on-time rate falls to 74.0%. December is the strongest month at 89.9%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 16 points. March was the busiest month here, with 124 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 88.6% on time and Saturday the weakest at 70.0%, a spread of 19 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 51% of the 20,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 51%Carrier
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 13%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 51%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 10,000 of the 20,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 19,940 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 93.4% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.01%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
6.9% 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 close to two hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,126 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 72.1% on time across 997 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.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 997 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: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.01% 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. 960 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PSP to DFW questions
How often is PSP 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 997 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is PSP 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 PSP to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.4% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 72.4%, 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 March delays on PSP to DFW?
March is the weakest month at 74.0% on time, compared with 89.9% in December. 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 PSP — the return legseparate record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- PSP to SFO, a related route61.1%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- PSP to DEN, a related route82.5%
- American Airlines on-time record80.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. PSP to DFW and DFW to PSP 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.