Carrier route record

F9SAN→DFW

Frontier Airlines · San Diego to Dallas-Fort Worth

Flights: 254
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 7%
Carriers: 3

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Frontier Airlines.

Frontier on SAN to DFW lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 254 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Frontier on SAN to DFW from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

78.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 247 completed flights

Avg delay

69 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.97%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

77.5%

Every carrier on SAN to DFW, 3,606 flights

These figures cover 254 flights between July 2025 and June 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.

Carrier by carrier

Frontier against every carrier on SAN to DFW

Frontier flew 254 of the 3,606 flights on SAN to DFW, about 7% of it. Its 78.9% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 77.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Alaska at 81.5% to American at 77.2%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.

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.

On-time performance by carrier on SAN to DFW
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	140	81.5%	50 min	0.71%	B+
Frontier Airlines (this page)thin sample	254	78.9%	69 min	1.97%	B
American Airlines	3,212	77.2%	87 min	3.08%	B−

Departure window

When Frontier runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 13 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am177 flights79.9%
8am–11am33 flights84.4%
11am–2pm3 flights—
2pm–5pm—
5pm–8pm40 flights71.1%
8pm–5am1 flights—

Scale runs 65% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 84.4% of the time, against 71.1% for the evening window. That is 13 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 177 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

Frontier on SAN to DFW through the year

Jul–Sep 202571 flights68.1%
Oct–Dec 202559 flights89.3%
Jan–Mar 202645 flights79.1%
Apr–Jun 202679 flights81.0%

Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 78.9% on time across 254 flights.

Frontier on SAN to DFW did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Oct–Dec 2025 at 89.3% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2025 at 68.1%, a swing of 21 points on roughly 64 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.

Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 81.2% on time and Friday the weakest at 74.4%. 7 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why Frontier runs late on this route

One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 45% of the 3,589 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

National Airspace System
45%
Carrier
33%
Late-arriving aircraft
22%

45% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 1,620 minutes out of 3,589, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 3,589 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.97% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.79%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

5.7% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 63.7% on time across 254 flights, 15 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 15 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 254 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.

What to do with this

Booking Frontier on SAN to DFW

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 254 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 78.9% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 247 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures