Carrier route record
AASFO→DFW
American Airlines · San Francisco to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 3,094
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 73%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on SFO to DFW sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 3,094 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so American on SFO to DFW runs 4 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 43 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
73.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,995 completed flights
Avg delay
95 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.62%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
73.1%
Every carrier on SFO to DFW, 4,262 flights
These figures cover 3,094 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on SFO to DFW
American flew 3,094 of the 4,262 flights on SFO to DFW, most of the route. Its 73.0% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 73.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 75.5% to Frontier at 64.3%. Two 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.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 916 | 75.5% | 55 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 3,094 | 73.0% | 95 min | 2.62% | C |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 35 | 70.6% | 60 min | 2.86% | C |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 217 | 64.3% | 52 min | 4.15% | D− |
Flight by flight
American flight numbers on SFO to DFW
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
When American runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 36 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am646 flights91.9%
- 8am–11am553 flights84.8%
- 11am–2pm524 flights65.4%
- 2pm–5pm608 flights56.0%
- 5pm–8pm288 flights64.4%
- 8pm–5am475 flights68.3%
Scale runs 50% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.9% of the time, against 56.0% for the afternoon window. That is 36 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 646 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on SFO to DFW through the year
June is the worst month at 57.9% on time, 27 points below September, the best at 84.7%. 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 289 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 75.6% on time and Thursday the weakest at 70.8%, a spread of 5 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on SFO to DFW runs when it is late
American on SFO to DFW often beats the schedule: 954 of 2,995 completed flights, 32%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 809 late arrivals split 235 under half an hour, 239 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 335 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early954 flights31.9%
- Within 15 min1,232 flights41.1%
- 15–29 min late235 flights7.8%
- 30–59 min late239 flights8.0%
- 1–2 hours late206 flights6.9%
- 2+ hours late129 flights4.3%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 2,995 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
205 of 908 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 23% of them. 106 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on SFO to DFW
The latest arrival of the period was on 19 June 2026, 40 hours 5 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. Three of the five worst days fell in March 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 19 June 2026 | 40 hours 5 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 13 January 2026 | 27 hours 51 minutes | Carrier |
| 12 March 2026 | 27 hours 38 minutes | Carrier |
| 10 March 2026 | 27 hours 29 minutes | Carrier |
| 20 March 2026 | 27 hours 7 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 52% of the 77,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 10%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
52% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 77,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 39 to one. The split is drawn from 76,675 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 28,000 of the 77,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 2.62%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about 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 costs
11.2% 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 1,464 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 58.2% on time across 3,096 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.
The sample behind these figures is 3,094 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.
What to do with this
Booking American on SFO to DFW
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 84.7% on time and June 57.9%, a swing of 27 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 2,995 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- SFO to DFW, every carrier
- American on DFW to SFO, the return leg
- United Airlines on SFO to DFW75.5%
- Frontier Airlines on SFO to DFW64.3%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- San Francisco International (SFO) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.