DFW → CLT Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · DFWNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:53 UTC

Dallas–Fort Worth airport profile →

Destination · CLTNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:52 UTC

Charlotte airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

49/ 100Fair

Better than 14% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 12,365 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

72.1%

8,742 of 12,117

Cancellation rate

1.84%

228 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-3 min

Average 13.9 min

Severe delays

10.5%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

72 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

12,365

3 carriers

DFW → CLT arrives on time 72.1% of the time; the return trip, CLT → DFW, arrives on time 74.3% of the time, a 2.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

DFW → CLT spends 31.2 minutes on the ground on a 936-mile trip: 18.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DFW and 13.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLT.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

What stands out

Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 96% of 4,467 comparable routes.

74.3% on time on the best day (Wednesday) against 70.4% on the worst (Friday).

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 4,467 in the comparison.

Why DFW → CLT flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

DFW → CLT cancelled 228 of 12,365 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 54. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 89.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 60 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather89.9%

Airline9.6%

Air traffic0.4%

Security0.0%

Of 228 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 60

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

205 cancellations, 89.9% of the total.

The airline1 in 562

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

22 cancellations, 9.6% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 12,365

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

1 cancellation, 0.4% of the total.

Security—

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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.

228 coded cancellations were recorded on DFW → CLT; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

63 min late

against a median of 3 min early

Arrived an hour or more late10.5%

Typical delay when late72 min

Cancelled1.84%

Landed somewhere else0.16%

DFW → CLT has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 3 min early, but the worst tenth are 66 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 12,365 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at CLT after arriving from DFW.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, DFW → CLT arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	44%	Likely to miss
45 min	27%	High risk
60 min	19%	High risk
90 min	10%	Some risk
120 min	6.5%	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 1.84% of the time and diverts 0.16% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 12,117 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 63 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 12,365 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

DFW → CLT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 84.7% of the time, against 58.7% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 26.0 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (DFW).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 10.7 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 1.2 points.

On-time arrival rate for DFW to CLT by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

50–59
60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures after 9 PM (240 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for DFW to CLT. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM	84.3% on time160 flights	83.4% on time145 flights	88.7% on time144 flights	92.0% on time151 flights	90.3% on time157 flights	88.2% on time154 flights	83.7% on time148 flights
6 AM–7 AM	98 flights, too few to score	111 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score	85.8% on time121 flights	98 flights, too few to score	89 flights, too few to score	113 flights, too few to score
7 AM–8 AM	79.4% on time137 flights	85.0% on time133 flights	84.8% on time126 flights	87.4% on time127 flights	83.6% on time140 flights	81.1% on time135 flights	86.3% on time133 flights
8 AM–9 AM	83.7% on time191 flights	83.3% on time175 flights	82.1% on time174 flights	84.2% on time187 flights	80.2% on time183 flights	85.5% on time183 flights	82.9% on time182 flights
9 AM–10 AM	28 flights, too few to score	26 flights, too few to score	25 flights, too few to score	27 flights, too few to score	29 flights, too few to score	30 flights, too few to score	26 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	80.5% on time155 flights	78.3% on time153 flights	78.1% on time156 flights	78.6% on time155 flights	75.2% on time153 flights	76.3% on time155 flights	81.4% on time162 flights
11 AM–12 PM	30 flights, too few to score	24 flights, too few to score	25 flights, too few to score	35 flights, too few to score	30 flights, too few to score	26 flights, too few to score	32 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	78.4% on time142 flights	77.5% on time139 flights	77.1% on time141 flights	71.5% on time145 flights	75.5% on time153 flights	75.2% on time137 flights	75.4% on time145 flights
1 PM–2 PM	67 flights, too few to score	43 flights, too few to score	41 flights, too few to score	41 flights, too few to score	58 flights, too few to score	44 flights, too few to score	46 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	119 flights, too few to score	110 flights, too few to score	66.1% on time121 flights	69.2% on time123 flights	64.2% on time125 flights	109 flights, too few to score	62.6% on time122 flights
3 PM–4 PM	56.8% on time150 flights	107 flights, too few to score	65.0% on time121 flights	61.2% on time132 flights	54.3% on time155 flights	57.1% on time121 flights	59.7% on time140 flights
4 PM–5 PM	89 flights, too few to score	92 flights, too few to score	90 flights, too few to score	88 flights, too few to score	86 flights, too few to score	88 flights, too few to score	87 flights, too few to score
5 PM–6 PM	67.2% on time133 flights	116 flights, too few to score	115 flights, too few to score	64.7% on time123 flights	65.1% on time130 flights	59.5% on time126 flights	61.6% on time130 flights
6 PM–7 PM	60.2% on time120 flights	113 flights, too few to score	69.2% on time122 flights	112 flights, too few to score	118 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score	110 flights, too few to score
7 PM–8 PM	49 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score	48 flights, too few to score	50 flights, too few to score	46 flights, too few to score	50 flights, too few to score	55 flights, too few to score
8 PM–9 PM	57.9% on time128 flights	106 flights, too few to score	59.0% on time120 flights	65.7% on time143 flights	54.8% on time131 flights	119 flights, too few to score	60.1% on time151 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM84.7%

9 AM–12 PM77.9%

12–3 PM70.1%

3–6 PM60.6%

6–9 PM60.6%

9 PM–5 AM58.7%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why DFW → CLT runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft45.1%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline33.9%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Air traffic control13.7%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather7.2%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DFW → CLT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DFW → CLT, at 45.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 84.7% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 58.7%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

The harder-hit end is the one the flight leaves from, where a cancellation keeps it from departing at all. Bad weather cancels 7.0 times the normal rate at DFW against 4.6 times at CLT. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: DFW 10.4% against 1.5%, CLT 5.7% against 1.2%. Flights that did leave DFW in bad weather arrived on time 56.4% of the time, against 74.4% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from DFW and CLT in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	DFW	CLT
Cancelled in bad weather	10.4%	5.7%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.5%	1.2%
Arrived on time, bad weather	56.4%	63.5%
Arrived on time, normal hours	74.4%	75.9%
Departures in bad weather	72,822	55,311

Frontier Airlines (5.9% cancelled against 10.5% for the other carriers at DFW) and Spirit Airlines (5.4% cancelled against 9.9% for the other carriers at DFW) cancelled fewer departures from DFW in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly worse.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at DFW

All departures from DFW

Cancellation rates in bad weather at DFW for the airlines that fly DFW to CLT, against the other carriers at DFW in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
Frontier Airlines	2,192	5.9%below the others	10.5%
Spirit Airlines	1,826	5.4%below the others	9.9%
American Airlines	38,491	10.0%about level	10.9%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from DFW and CLT, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from DFW on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: DFW (airlines), CLT, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
American Airlines	11,263	71.8%	1.84%	-3 min	10.7%
Spirit Airlines	604	74.2%	1.16%	-3 min	8.4%
Frontier Airlines	498	76.4%	2.81%	-6 min	7.4%

American Airlines flew 91.1% of the 12,365 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.81% of its flights here against 1.16% for Spirit Airlines.

Frontier Airlines arrived on time 4.6 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon71.6%

Tue73.0%

Wed74.3%

Thu72.6%

Fri70.4%

Sat72.1%

Sun71.2%

Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 3.9 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 21.4 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 73.9% against 73.1% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 12,365 DFW → CLT 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

DFW airport CLT airport Return direction CLT → DFW

DFW→CLT

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why DFW → CLT flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why DFW → CLT runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at DFW

Airlines on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology