Route profile
ABQ→DAL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Albuquerque to Dallas, 580 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 78% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,182 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
ABQ → DAL arrives on time 82.7% of the time; the return trip, DAL → ABQ, arrives on time 76.9% of the time, a 5.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ABQ → DAL spends 16.7 minutes on the ground on a 580-mile trip: 11.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ABQ and 5.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at DAL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where ABQ to DAL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
ABQ to DAL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 AM: 96.3% arrive on time, 8.4 points ahead of the 87.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.5 points.
ABQ to DAL holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 82.5% on time to their 75.3%, a 7.2 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
January is kinder to ABQ to DAL than to routes of similar length: 89.2% on time against 79.5%, 9.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on ABQ to DAL than on its routes of similar length: 82.7% on time here, 77.8% there, 4.9 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
ABQ to DAL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 96.3% | routes of similar length | 87.9% | +8.4 pts | 191 here, 138,433 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 82.5% | routes of similar length | 75.3% | +7.2 pts | 710 here, 276,844 there |
| Month: January | 89.2% | routes of similar length | 79.5% | +9.7 pts | 390 here, 138,296 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 82.7% | routes of similar length | 77.8% | +4.9 pts | 5,105 here, 428,329 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 580 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why ABQ → DAL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
ABQ → DAL cancelled 60 of 5,182 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 86. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 71.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 121 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 60 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
43 cancellations, 71.7% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
14 cancellations, 23.3% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
3 cancellations, 5.0% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
60 coded cancellations were recorded on ABQ → DAL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
30 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 5,182 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DAL after arriving from ABQ.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.8% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.7% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.6% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.16% of the time and diverts 0.33% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,105 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 30 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,182 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ABQ → DAL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 95.1% of the time, against 67.3% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 27.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 94.7% on time from 722 flights
- 6 AM: 96.4% on time from 307 flights
- 7 AM: 96.3% on time from 194 flights
- 8 AM: 92.2% on time from 130 flights
- 9 AM: 91.6% on time from 383 flights
- 10 AM: 89.7% on time from 446 flights
- 11 AM: 87.0% on time from 304 flights
- 12 PM: 81.3% on time from 329 flights
- 1 PM: 78.5% on time from 374 flights
- 2 PM: 73.5% on time from 371 flights
- 3 PM: 77.8% on time from 350 flights
- 4 PM: 68.4% on time from 297 flights
- 5 PM: 71.7% on time from 420 flights
- 6 PM: 65.4% on time from 430 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why ABQ → DAL runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for ABQ → DAL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on ABQ → DAL, at 51.6%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 95.1% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 67.3%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 5,182 | 82.7% | 1.16% | -6 min | 4.9% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 7.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 89.2%
- Feb: 90.4%
- Mar: 85.3%
- Apr: 83.1%
- May: 73.8%
- Jun: 75.6%
- Jul: 76.3%
- Aug: 82.1%
- Sep: 87.8%
- Oct: 84.5%
- Nov: 85.3%
- Dec: 82.2%
May is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 16.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 71.7% from 145 flights
- August 2023: 84.2% from 149 flights
- September 2023: 86.0% from 144 flights
- October 2023: 78.7% from 151 flights
- November 2023: 85.7% from 147 flights
- December 2023: 89.5% from 152 flights
- January 2024: 87.9% from 145 flights
- February 2024: 91.0% from 133 flights
- March 2024: 82.9% from 140 flights
- April 2024: 80.7% from 137 flights
- May 2024: 74.5% from 142 flights
- June 2024: 77.5% from 139 flights
- July 2024: 81.1% from 144 flights
- August 2024: 76.9% from 134 flights
- September 2024: 87.4% from 128 flights
- October 2024: 90.0% from 160 flights
- November 2024: 82.9% from 143 flights
- December 2024: 72.5% from 150 flights
- January 2025: 89.8% from 132 flights
- February 2025: 90.2% from 123 flights
- March 2025: 82.9% from 143 flights
- April 2025: 88.3% from 142 flights
- May 2025: 78.3% from 144 flights
- June 2025: 80.7% from 142 flights
- July 2025: 83.1% from 145 flights
- August 2025: 85.1% from 135 flights
- September 2025: 90.2% from 133 flights
- October 2025: 84.5% from 162 flights
- November 2025: 87.6% from 133 flights
- December 2025: 84.7% from 137 flights
- January 2026: 90.2% from 129 flights
- February 2026: 90.0% from 124 flights
- March 2026: 90.1% from 145 flights
- April 2026: 80.2% from 134 flights
- May 2026: 68.4% from 136 flights
- June 2026: 67.7% from 128 flights
- July 2026: 68.7% from 132 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.4% against 83.5% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,182 ABQ → DAL flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed