Route reliability record
SJC→DFW
San Jose to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 1,138
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 1,438 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 3 points 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 close to two hours on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 1,138 SJC to DFW flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
Best time to fly SJC to DFW: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.6% of the time and Tuesday flights 85.1%, against 80.7% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, 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
80.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,101 completed flights
Avg delay
101 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.37%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
American
80.9% on time across 1,110 flights
These figures cover 1,138 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 10 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
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 | 1,110 | 80.9% | 101 min | 2.43% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 28 | 75.0% | 90 min | 0.00% | 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.
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 | 78.9% | 80.9% | 2.43% | 8am–11am, Tue (route) | AA 1019 06:00 |
| 2. SFO → DFWSan Francisco to Dallas-Fort Worth | United Airlines | 77.0% | 77.4% | 0.47% | 5pm–8pm, Wed | — |
| 3. SFO → DFWSan Francisco to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 71.3% | 73.4% | 2.80% | 5am–8am, Tue | 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 25 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–8am367 flights90.4%
- 8am–11am96 flights92.6%
- 11am–2pm399 flights77.1%
- 2pm–5pm249 flights68.1%
- 5pm–8pm6 flights—
- 8pm–5am21 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 92.6% of the time, against 68.1% for the afternoon window. That is 25 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 399 flights scheduled in it.
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. July was the busiest month here, with 129 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 85.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.8%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 21,000 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.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 43%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 21,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 21,412 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 9,122 of the 21,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 2.37% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.88%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.8% 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 close to two hours, 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. 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 71.0% on time across 1,136 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 1,138 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. October runs 93.4% on time and November 70.6%, a swing of 23 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of November before you think about anything else. 1,101 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 19.3% of the 1,138 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is SJC to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
80.7% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.6%, a difference of 3 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 92.6% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 68.1%, 25 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 route72.4%
- ORD to DFW, a related route69.7%
- SJC to LAX, a related route86.6%
- American Airlines on-time record80.9%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record75.0%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.