Route reliability record
RDU→DFW
Raleigh to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 2,263
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,061 mi
- Carriers
- 5
This route lands a B, 2 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 2,263 RDU to DFW flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
Best time to fly RDU to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Friday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.7% of the time and Friday flights 82.6%, against 79.7% 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
79.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,195 completed flights
Avg delay
89 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.39%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
79.9% on time across 1,998 flights
These figures cover 2,263 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 RDU 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 | 1,998 | 79.9% | 92 min | 2.35% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 222 | 78.0% | 72 min | 1.35% | B |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 18 | 76.9% | 80 min | 22.22% | B− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 18 | 76.5% | 32 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 7 | 71.4% | 26 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on RDU 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 22 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am627 flights88.7%
- 8am–11am292 flights85.2%
- 11am–2pm554 flights81.3%
- 2pm–5pm415 flights72.6%
- 5pm–8pm360 flights66.7%
- 8pm–5am15 flights—
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.7% of the time, against 66.7% for the evening window. That is 22 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 627 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter RDU 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 RDU to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.7% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 66.7%, a wide gap of 22.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.7%
- 8–11am85.2%
- 11am–2pm81.3%
- 2–5pm72.6%
- 5–8pm66.7%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. 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.
June is the worst month at 71.0% on time, 16 points below February, the best at 86.6%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 214 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 82.6% on time and Monday the weakest at 76.5%, a spread of 6 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 43% of the 40,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Carrier
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 13%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
41% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 40,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 14 to one. The split is drawn from 39,527 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 17,000 of the 40,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 2.39% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.62%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.7% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,061 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 71.3% on time across 2,266 flights, 8 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 8 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,263 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. February runs 86.6% on time and June 71.0%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 2,195 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
RDU to DFW questions
How often is RDU 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 20.3% of the 2,263 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is RDU to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
79.7% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 points in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on RDU to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 66.7%, 22 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 RDU to DFW?
June is the weakest month at 71.0% on time, compared with 86.6% in February. 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 RDU — the return legseparate record
- Raleigh-Durham International (RDU) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- American Airlines on RDU to DFW79.9%
- Frontier Airlines on RDU to DFW78.0%
- RDU to ATL, a related route86.5%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- RDU to ORD, a related route74.3%
- American Airlines on-time record79.9%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record78.0%
- PSA Airlines on-time record76.9%
- 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. RDU to DFW and DFW to RDU 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.