Route reliability record
SNA→DFW
Santa Ana to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 2,957
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,205 mi
- Carriers
- 2
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 2,957 SNA to DFW flights, with a median arrival 8 minutes early.
Best time to fly SNA to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Thursday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.9% of the time and Thursday flights 86.9%, against 81.3% 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 40 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
81.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,858 completed flights
Avg delay
93 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.71%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
81.8% on time across 2,897 flights
These figures cover 2,957 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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 SNA 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 | 2,897 | 81.8% | 92 min | 2.69% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 60 | 60.3% | 113 min | 3.33% | D− |
Flight by flight
Flights on SNA 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 Santa Ana 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. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. LAX → DFWLos Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth | Delta Air Lines | 84.2% | 85.4% | 1.45% | 5am–8am, Fri | DL 521 07:35 |
| 2. ONT → DFWOntario to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 79.8% | 81.9% | 2.58% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 1412 06:10 |
| 3. BUR → DFWBurbank to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 79.8% | 81.9% | 2.61% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 2599 07:00 |
| 4. SNA → DFWSanta Ana to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 79.6% | 81.8% | 2.69% | 5am–8am, Thu (route) | AA 1382 06:45 |
| 5. LAX → DFWLos Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 72.1% | 73.7% | 2.23% | 5am–8am, Wed | AA 2746 07:00 |
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 14 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am360 flights88.9%
- 8am–11am957 flights86.1%
- 11am–2pm660 flights77.3%
- 2pm–5pm674 flights74.6%
- 5pm–8pm306 flights80.7%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.9% of the time, against 74.6% for the afternoon window. That is 14 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 957 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SNA 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 SNA to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.9% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 74.6%, a wide gap of 14.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.9%
- 8–11am86.1%
- 11am–2pm77.3%
- 2–5pm74.6%
- 5–8pm80.7%
- 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 16 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.
December is the weak month at 72.6% on time, against 88.3% in August. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. July was the busiest month here, with 281 flights.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 86.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.5%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 50,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 50,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 49,541 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 37%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 18,000 of the 50,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 2.71%, 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 actually costs
6.8% 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 1,205 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 runs 79.1% on time across 2,956 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 2,957 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. August runs 88.3% on time and December 72.6%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 2,858 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SNA to DFW questions
How often is SNA 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 18.7% of the 2,957 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is SNA to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
81.3% 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 SNA to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.9% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 74.6%, 14 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 December delays on SNA to DFW?
December is the weakest month at 72.6% on time, compared with 88.3% in August. Across the year that is 16 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 SNA — the return legseparate record
- John Wayne Airport (SNA) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- SNA to SFO, a related route65.5%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- SNA to PHX, a related route82.3%
- American Airlines on-time record81.8%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record60.3%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. SNA to DFW and DFW to SNA 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.