Route reliability record
SAN→DFW
San Diego to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 3,737
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,171 mi
- Carriers
- 3
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 a little over an hour on average. That rests on 3,737 SAN to DFW flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
Best time to fly SAN to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 86.7% of the time and Wednesday flights 80.4%, against 77.6% 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
77.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,625 completed flights
Avg delay
81 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.30%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
77.4% on time across 3,211 flights
These figures cover 3,737 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.4% 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 SAN 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 | 262 | 79.6% | 73 min | 1.91% | B |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 264 | 77.5% | 43 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 3,211 | 77.4% | 84 min | 2.46% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on SAN 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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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly San Diego 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 2 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SAN → DFWSan Diego to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 75.5% | 77.4% | 2.46% | 5am–8am, Wed | AA 1055 06:15 |
| 2. SAN → DALSan Diego to Dallas | Southwest Airlines | 65.7% | 66.8% | 1.63% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
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 21 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am959 flights86.7%
- 8am–11am977 flights81.3%
- 11am–2pm684 flights77.3%
- 2pm–5pm955 flights66.5%
- 5pm–8pm161 flights65.6%
- 8pm–5am1 flights—
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 86.7% of the time, against 65.6% for the evening 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 977 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SAN 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 SAN to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 86.7% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 65.6%, a wide gap of 21.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am86.7%
- 8–11am81.3%
- 11am–2pm77.3%
- 2–5pm66.5%
- 5–8pm65.6%
- 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 19 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.
July is the worst month at 69.4% on time, 19 points below April, the best at 88.2%. 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 397 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 75.4%, a spread of 5 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 51% of the 65,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
51% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 65,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 65,443 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 86.7% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.30% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.70%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
8.4% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,171 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 63.3% on time across 3,738 flights, 14 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 14 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 3,737 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. April runs 88.2% on time and July 69.4%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 3,625 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SAN to DFW questions
How often is SAN 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 22.4% of the 3,737 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is SAN to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
77.6% 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 SAN to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 86.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 65.6%, 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 July delays on SAN to DFW?
July is the weakest month at 69.4% on time, compared with 88.2% in April. Across the year that is 19 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 SAN — the return legseparate record
- San Diego International (SAN) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- Frontier Airlines on SAN to DFW79.6%
- Alaska Airlines on SAN to DFW77.5%
- American Airlines on SAN to DFW77.4%
- SAN to SFO, a related route59.5%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- SAN to DEN, a related route78.4%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record79.6%
- Alaska Airlines on-time record77.5%
- American Airlines on-time record77.4%
- 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. SAN to DFW and DFW to SAN 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.