Route profile
DAL→TPA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Dallas to Tampa, 917 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 28% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,141 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DAL → TPA arrives on time 72.2% of the time; the return trip, TPA → DAL, arrives on time 76.1% of the time, a 3.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DAL → TPA spends 18.1 minutes on the ground on a 917-mile trip: 13.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DAL and 4.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at TPA.
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 95% of 4,023 comparable routes.
90.6% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 57.6% 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 TPA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DAL to TPA struggles most at 4 PM: 56.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 12.3 points behind the 68.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.4 points.
Thursday is the day DAL to TPA slips furthest against routes of similar length, 66.4% on time where they average 76.5%, 10.1 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 10.4 points.
In May, DAL to TPA runs 10.5 points below routes of similar length, 63.9% on time to 74.4%. Against all other routes the gap is 11.4 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on DAL to TPA arrive on time 72.2% of the time, 4.1 points below the 76.3% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 5.2 points.
DAL to TPA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 56.3% | routes of similar length | 68.6% | −12.3 pts | 286 here, 151,313 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 66.4% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | −10.1 pts | 587 here, 419,534 there |
| Month: May | 63.9% | routes of similar length | 74.4% | −10.5 pts | 332 here, 238,210 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 72.2% | routes of similar length | 76.3% | −4.1 pts | 4,076 here, 764,347 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 917 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 → TPA flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DAL → TPA cancelled 58 of 4,141 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 71. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 79.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 90 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 58 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.
46 cancellations, 79.3% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
6 cancellations, 10.3% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
6 cancellations, 10.3% 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.
58 coded cancellations were recorded on DAL → TPA; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
51 min late
against a median of 0 min early
Percentiles over 4,141 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at TPA after arriving from DAL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 50% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 27% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 7.9% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.5% | 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 1.40% 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 4,076 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 51 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,141 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DAL → TPA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.6% of the time, against 57.6% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 33.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 92.8% on time from 585 flights
- 7 AM: 87.4% on time from 412 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 85.2% on time from 145 flights
- 10 AM: 75.4% on time from 242 flights
- 11 AM: 77.6% on time from 309 flights
- 12 PM: 72.9% on time from 130 flights
- 1 PM: 70.0% on time from 214 flights
- 2 PM: 71.2% on time from 156 flights
- 3 PM: 60.9% on time from 186 flights
- 4 PM: 56.3% on time from 288 flights
- 5 PM: 59.6% on time from 328 flights
- 6 PM: 70.1% on time from 159 flights
- 7 PM: 58.9% on time from 373 flights
- 8 PM: 55.9% on time from 352 flights
- 9 PM: 57.6% on time from 154 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DAL → TPA 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 → TPA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DAL → TPA, at 49.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.6% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 57.6%.
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 | 4,141 | 72.2% | 1.40% | 0 min | 8.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 11.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.2%
- Feb: 75.4%
- Mar: 69.9%
- Apr: 74.0%
- May: 63.9%
- Jun: 62.7%
- Jul: 63.0%
- Aug: 72.2%
- Sep: 79.6%
- Oct: 77.7%
- Nov: 82.1%
- Dec: 72.4%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 19.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 70.6% from 129 flights
- August 2023: 79.0% from 126 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (115)
- October 2023: 78.2% from 124 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (119)
- December 2023: 78.4% from 126 flights
- January 2024: 71.2% from 121 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- March 2024: 67.5% from 122 flights
- April 2024: too few flights to score (110)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (111)
- June 2024: 71.5% from 123 flights
- July 2024: 58.4% from 125 flights
- August 2024: too few flights to score (98)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (89)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (105)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (109)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (110)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (100)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (108)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- June 2025: 59.0% from 122 flights
- July 2025: 59.1% from 127 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (109)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (110)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (99)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (105)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (119)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (110)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (114)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (106)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (109)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 70.4% against 71.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,141 DAL → TPA 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