Route reliability record
RSW→DFW
Fort Myers to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 1,333
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,017 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 1,333 RSW to DFW flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Best time to fly RSW to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 93.0% of the time and Wednesday flights 81.8%, against 77.5% 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
77.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,294 completed flights
Avg delay
107 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.40%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
77.5% on time across 1,331 flights
These figures cover 1,333 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.0% 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 RSW 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 2 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 1,331 | 77.5% | 107 min | 2.40% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on RSW 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 34 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am364 flights93.0%
- 8am–11am154 flights87.2%
- 11am–2pm270 flights76.2%
- 2pm–5pm245 flights73.0%
- 5pm–8pm300 flights58.7%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 50% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 58.7% on time, against 93.0% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 364 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter RSW 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 RSW to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.0% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 58.7%, a wide gap of 34.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.0%
- 8–11am87.2%
- 11am–2pm76.2%
- 2–5pm73.0%
- 5–8pm58.7%
- 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 21 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 65.2% on time, 21 points below September, the best at 86.4%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 150 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.8% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.6%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 31,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 35%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
47% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 31,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 31,068 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 11,000 of the 31,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 2.40% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.53%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
10.0% 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 1,017 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 1,332 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.
The sample behind these figures is 1,333 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. September runs 86.4% on time and June 65.2%, a swing of 21 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 1,294 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
RSW to DFW questions
How often is RSW to DFW delayed?
Roughly 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 22.5% of the 1,333 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is RSW to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
77.5% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of half a point in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on RSW to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.0% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 58.7%, 34 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 RSW to DFW?
June is the weakest month at 65.2% on time, compared with 86.4% in September. Across the year that is 21 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 RSW — the return legseparate record
- Southwest Florida International (RSW) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- RSW to ORD, a related route76.4%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- RSW to ATL, a related route85.4%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record100.0%
- American Airlines on-time record77.5%
- 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. RSW to DFW and DFW to RSW are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed RSW 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.