Route profile
DAL→STL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Dallas to St. Louis, 546 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 59% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,289 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DAL → STL arrives on time 79.2% of the time; the return trip, STL → DAL, arrives on time 78.3% of the time.
DAL → STL spends 17.8 minutes on the ground on a 546-mile trip: 12.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DAL and 5.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at STL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
On-time performance swings unusually widely by time of day here, wider than 94% of 4,023 comparable routes.
93.6% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 60.9% for 9 PM–5 AM.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where DAL to STL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DAL to STL struggles most at 9 PM: 54.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 13.9 points behind the 68.5% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.9 points.
DAL to STL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 AM: 93.8% arrive on time, 6.4 points ahead of the 87.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.9 points.
In June, DAL to STL runs 7.8 points below routes of similar length, 66.1% on time to 73.9%. Against all other routes the gap is 6.6 points.
February is kinder to DAL to STL than to routes of similar length: 88.8% on time against 82.0%, 6.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
DAL to STL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 54.6% | routes of similar length | 68.5% | −13.9 pts | 251 here, 63,189 there |
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 93.8% | routes of similar length | 87.4% | +6.4 pts | 500 here, 111,146 there |
| Month: June | 66.1% | routes of similar length | 73.9% | −7.8 pts | 495 here, 141,195 there |
| Month: February | 88.8% | routes of similar length | 82.0% | +6.8 pts | 475 here, 121,509 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 546 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 DAL → STL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DAL → STL cancelled 80 of 6,289 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 79. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 77.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 101 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 80 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.
62 cancellations, 77.5% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
17 cancellations, 21.3% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
1 cancellation, 1.3% 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.
80 coded cancellations were recorded on DAL → STL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
40 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 6,289 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at STL after arriving from DAL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 39% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.7% | 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 1.27% of the time and diverts 0.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,198 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 40 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,289 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DAL → STL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.6% of the time, against 60.9% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 32.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 95.6% on time from 791 flights
- 7 AM: 89.4% on time from 409 flights
- 8 AM: 93.8% on time from 506 flights
- 9 AM: 86.3% on time from 198 flights
- 10 AM: 88.7% on time from 155 flights
- 11 AM: 81.9% on time from 471 flights
- 12 PM: 84.9% on time from 452 flights
- 1 PM: 73.1% on time from 212 flights
- 2 PM: 79.0% on time from 189 flights
- 3 PM: 73.9% on time from 441 flights
- 4 PM: 73.1% on time from 191 flights
- 5 PM: 70.3% on time from 374 flights
- 6 PM: 70.9% on time from 323 flights
- 7 PM: 73.6% on time from 585 flights
- 8 PM: 64.0% on time from 378 flights
- 9 PM: 54.6% on time from 255 flights
- 10 PM: 65.3% on time from 359 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DAL → STL runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow 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 DAL → STL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DAL → STL, at 60.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.6% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 60.9%.
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 | 6,289 | 79.2% | 1.27% | -4 min | 6.3% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 10.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.2%
- Feb: 88.8%
- Mar: 75.0%
- Apr: 77.9%
- May: 69.9%
- Jun: 66.1%
- Jul: 72.2%
- Aug: 82.3%
- Sep: 84.5%
- Oct: 83.3%
- Nov: 85.0%
- Dec: 85.8%
June is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 22.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 71.9% from 178 flights
- August 2023: 83.1% from 178 flights
- September 2023: 78.7% from 190 flights
- October 2023: 85.9% from 186 flights
- November 2023: 88.4% from 172 flights
- December 2023: 84.9% from 180 flights
- January 2024: 80.2% from 178 flights
- February 2024: 89.2% from 166 flights
- March 2024: 75.2% from 165 flights
- April 2024: 78.2% from 171 flights
- May 2024: 70.0% from 177 flights
- June 2024: 71.6% from 169 flights
- July 2024: 71.5% from 173 flights
- August 2024: 86.9% from 176 flights
- September 2024: 88.8% from 170 flights
- October 2024: 83.6% from 184 flights
- November 2024: 85.3% from 172 flights
- December 2024: 82.9% from 182 flights
- January 2025: 83.9% from 176 flights
- February 2025: 90.0% from 160 flights
- March 2025: 80.1% from 172 flights
- April 2025: 80.3% from 181 flights
- May 2025: 72.9% from 173 flights
- June 2025: 72.8% from 160 flights
- July 2025: 75.2% from 161 flights
- August 2025: 76.9% from 172 flights
- September 2025: 86.6% from 172 flights
- October 2025: 79.9% from 156 flights
- November 2025: 80.8% from 150 flights
- December 2025: 90.2% from 154 flights
- January 2026: 82.7% from 147 flights
- February 2026: 87.2% from 149 flights
- March 2026: 69.5% from 166 flights
- April 2026: 74.7% from 159 flights
- May 2026: 66.9% from 167 flights
- June 2026: 54.2% from 169 flights
- July 2026: 70.5% from 178 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.3% against 81.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,289 DAL → STL 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