Route reliability record
SJC→DFW
San Jose to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 1,093
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,438 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route lands a B, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 1,093 SJC to DFW flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
Best time to fly SJC to DFW: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Thursday. Flights in that window arrived on time 93.0% of the time and Thursday flights 84.8%, against 81.4% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 4 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 41 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
81.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,064 completed flights
Avg delay
89 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.92%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
81.4% on time across 1,093 flights
These figures cover 1,093 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 11 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 SJC 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 | 1,093 | 81.4% | 89 min | 1.92% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on SJC 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 Jose 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. 2 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SJC → DFWSan Jose to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 79.8% | 81.4% | 1.92% | 8am–11am, Thu | AA 1019 06:00 |
| 2. SFO → DFWSan Francisco to Dallas-Fort Worth | United Airlines | 75.1% | 75.5% | 0.55% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 3. SFO → DFWSan Francisco to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 71.1% | 73.0% | 2.62% | 5am–8am, Wed | AA 2904 08:00 |
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 26 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am367 flights91.3%
- 8am–11am71 flights93.0%
- 11am–2pm336 flights80.7%
- 2pm–5pm309 flights67.1%
- 5pm–8pm6 flights—
- 8pm–5am4 flights—
Scale runs 60% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 93.0% of the time, against 67.1% for the afternoon window. That is 26 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 367 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SJC 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 SJC to DFW, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 93.0% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 67.1%, a wide gap of 25.9 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am91.3%
- 8–11am93.0%
- 11am–2pm80.7%
- 2–5pm67.1%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am—
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 23 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.
October is the best month on the calendar at 93.4% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. February was the busiest month here, with 97 flights.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 84.8% on time and Saturday the weakest at 79.4%, a spread of 5 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 18,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 38%Carrier
- 10%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 18,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 17,646 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 38%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 6,684 of the 18,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.92% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.73%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.4% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,438 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 73.1% on time across 1,090 flights, 8 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 8 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 1,093 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in DFW after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 1,093 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 81.4% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 1,064 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SJC to DFW questions
How often is SJC to DFW delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 18.6% of the 1,093 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is SJC to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
81.4% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 4 points in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on SJC to DFW?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 93.0% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 67.1%, 26 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 November delays on SJC to DFW?
November is the weakest month at 70.6% on time, compared with 93.4% in October. Across the year that is 23 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 SJC — the return legseparate record
- Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International (SJC) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- SJC to SAN, a related route68.3%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- SJC to LAX, a related route85.0%
- American Airlines on-time record81.4%
- 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. SJC to DFW and DFW to SJC 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.