Route profile
DFW→CLE
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Dallas–Fort Worth to Cleveland, 1,021 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 8% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,316 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DFW → CLE arrives on time 69.6% of the time; the return trip, CLE → DFW, arrives on time 75.3% of the time, a 5.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DFW → CLE spends 27.8 minutes on the ground on a 1,021-mile trip: 18.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DFW and 9.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLE.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where DFW to CLE differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DFW to CLE struggles most at 12 PM: 65.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 12.8 points behind the 78.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.8 points.
DFW to CLE is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 73.3% arrive on time, 5.5 points ahead of the 67.8% those routes manage at that hour.
Sunday is the day DFW to CLE slips furthest against routes of similar length, 63.5% on time where they average 73.4%, 9.9 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 11.3 points.
In March, DFW to CLE runs 13.3 points below routes of similar length, 62.2% on time to 75.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 15.7 points.
American Airlines’ flights on DFW to CLE arrive on time 69.2% of the time, 4.7 points below the 73.9% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 5.9 points.
DFW to CLE against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 65.6% | routes of similar length | 78.4% | −12.8 pts | 195 here, 167,022 there |
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 73.3% | routes of similar length | 67.8% | +5.5 pts | 329 here, 148,829 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 63.5% | routes of similar length | 73.4% | −9.9 pts | 787 here, 422,982 there |
| Month: March | 62.2% | routes of similar length | 75.5% | −13.3 pts | 407 here, 252,432 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 69.2% | routes of similar length | 73.9% | −4.7 pts | 4,644 here, 560,235 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 1,021 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 DFW → CLE flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DFW → CLE cancelled 114 of 5,316 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 47. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 87.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 53 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 114 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.
100 cancellations, 87.7% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
11 cancellations, 9.6% 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, 2.6% 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.
114 coded cancellations were recorded on DFW → CLE; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
64 min late
against a median of 1 min early
DFW → CLE has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 1 min early, but the worst tenth are 65 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.
Percentiles over 5,316 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLE after arriving from DFW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 47% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 29% | High risk |
| 60 min | 20% | High risk |
| 90 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.6% | Some 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 2.14% of the time and diverts 0.19% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,192 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 64 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,316 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DFW → CLE flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 82.9% of the time, against 59.5% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 23.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 87.0% on time from 411 flights
- 8 AM: 79.4% on time from 557 flights
- 9 AM: 83.4% on time from 335 flights
- 10 AM: 77.5% on time from 272 flights
- 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 65.6% on time from 199 flights
- 1 PM: 67.8% on time from 648 flights
- 2 PM: 64.2% on time from 188 flights
- 3 PM: 62.0% on time from 264 flights
- 4 PM: 73.3% on time from 341 flights
- 5 PM: 64.6% on time from 412 flights
- 6 PM: 59.5% on time from 261 flights
- 7 PM: 61.4% on time from 563 flights
- 8 PM: 58.0% on time from 677 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why DFW → CLE 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 DFW → CLE. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DFW → CLE, at 53.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 82.9% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 59.5%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 4,754 | 69.2% | 2.10% | -1 min | 11.1% |
| Frontier Airlines | 522 | 72.6% | 2.11% | -2 min | 10.0% |
American Airlines flew 90.1% of the 5,276 flights listed.
Frontier Airlines arrived on time 3.4 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 12.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 66.7%
- Feb: 70.6%
- Mar: 62.2%
- Apr: 70.7%
- May: 67.2%
- Jun: 60.8%
- Jul: 65.9%
- Aug: 70.0%
- Sep: 75.1%
- Oct: 80.2%
- Nov: 75.2%
- Dec: 73.1%
June is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 19.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 62.6% from 203 flights
- August 2023: 72.6% from 201 flights
- September 2023: 78.7% from 176 flights
- October 2023: 85.4% from 154 flights
- November 2023: 83.6% from 146 flights
- December 2023: 81.0% from 143 flights
- January 2024: 63.6% from 125 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- March 2024: 65.9% from 136 flights
- April 2024: 70.4% from 138 flights
- May 2024: 61.4% from 142 flights
- June 2024: 60.8% from 161 flights
- July 2024: 68.5% from 168 flights
- August 2024: 70.8% from 138 flights
- September 2024: 69.7% from 142 flights
- October 2024: 78.5% from 144 flights
- November 2024: 78.8% from 134 flights
- December 2024: 73.1% from 134 flights
- January 2025: 74.2% from 133 flights
- February 2025: 71.8% from 125 flights
- March 2025: 66.7% from 134 flights
- April 2025: 75.8% from 129 flights
- May 2025: 70.6% from 140 flights
- June 2025: 61.1% from 165 flights
- July 2025: 69.3% from 170 flights
- August 2025: 65.7% from 147 flights
- September 2025: 76.1% from 144 flights
- October 2025: 76.1% from 135 flights
- November 2025: 61.6% from 128 flights
- December 2025: 65.3% from 146 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (105)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (105)
- March 2026: 54.3% from 143 flights
- April 2026: 66.2% from 135 flights
- May 2026: 69.0% from 146 flights
- June 2026: 60.6% from 148 flights
- July 2026: 63.5% from 137 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 65.6% against 71.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,316 DFW → CLE 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