Route reliability record
RNO→DFW
Reno to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 1,274
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,345 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route lands a B, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 1,274 RNO to DFW flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
Best time to fly RNO to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.8% of the time and Tuesday flights 85.7%, against 82.0% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 5 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 47 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
82.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,234 completed flights
Avg delay
123 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.75%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
82.0% on time across 1,274 flights
These figures cover 1,274 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 10 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 RNO 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 | 1,274 | 82.0% | 123 min | 2.75% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on RNO 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 18 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am377 flights89.8%
- 8am–11am62 flights79.0%
- 11am–2pm329 flights83.3%
- 2pm–5pm328 flights72.1%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am178 flights82.6%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.8% of the time, against 72.1% for the afternoon window. That is 18 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 377 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter RNO 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 RNO to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.8% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 72.1%, a wide gap of 17.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.8%
- 8–11am79.0%
- 11am–2pm83.3%
- 2–5pm72.1%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am82.6%
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 20 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 April, when the on-time rate falls to 70.4%. August is the strongest month at 90.8%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 20 points. March was the busiest month here, with 124 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 85.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 78.7%, a spread of 7 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 49% of the 27,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%Late-arriving aircraft
- 34%Carrier
- 9%Extreme weather
- 8%National Airspace System
49% 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 6 to one. The split is drawn from 27,254 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 34%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 9,277 of the 27,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 2.75%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
7.2% 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 1,345 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 73.2% on time across 1,274 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 1,274 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. August runs 90.8% on time and April 70.4%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of April before you think about anything else. 1,234 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
RNO to DFW questions
How often is RNO to DFW delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 18.0% of the 1,274 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is RNO to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
82.0% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 5 points in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on RNO to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.8% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 72.1%, 18 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 April delays on RNO to DFW?
April is the weakest month at 70.4% on time, compared with 90.8% in August. Across the year that is 20 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 RNO — the return legseparate record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- RNO to LAS, a related route81.4%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- RNO to LAX, a related route87.2%
- American Airlines on-time record82.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. RNO to DFW and DFW to RNO 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.