Route profile
DFW→LAX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Dallas–Fort Worth to Los Angeles, 1,235 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 22% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 20,660 flights. How this is calculated
DFW → LAX arrives on time 72.8% of the time; the return trip, LAX → DFW, arrives on time 76.9% of the time, a 4.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DFW → LAX spends 28.8 minutes on the ground on a 1,235-mile trip: 18.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DFW and 10.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Why DFW → LAX flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DFW → LAX cancelled 312 of 20,660 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 66. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 76.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 86 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 312 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.
240 cancellations, 76.9% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
68 cancellations, 21.8% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
4 cancellations, 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
312 coded cancellations were recorded on DFW → LAX; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
57 min late
against a median of 4 min early
DFW → LAX has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 4 min early, but the worst tenth are 61 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 20,660 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LAX after arriving from DFW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 43% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 26% | High risk |
| 60 min | 18% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.5% | 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 1.51% of the time and diverts 0.09% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 20,329 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 57 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 20,660 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DFW → LAX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 85.5% of the time, against 59.6% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 25.9 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 9.7 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.1 points.
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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 before 6 AM and after 11 PM (296 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.
View as tableHide table
| Hour | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 AM–7 AM | 85.3% on time287 flights | 87.9% on time274 flights | 88.0% on time261 flights | 91.1% on time273 flights | 90.3% on time292 flights | 86.7% on time281 flights | 89.8% on time270 flights |
| 7 AM–8 AM | 86.8% on time221 flights | 85.8% on time213 flights | 81.3% on time229 flights | 83.3% on time213 flights | 84.7% on time220 flights | 82.2% on time209 flights | 86.1% on time204 flights |
| 8 AM–9 AM | 78.4% on time174 flights | 76.8% on time196 flights | 82.0% on time184 flights | 85.9% on time172 flights | 82.3% on time168 flights | 81.3% on time175 flights | 84.5% on time171 flights |
| 9 AM–10 AM | 75.8% on time151 flights | 79.2% on time170 flights | 79.5% on time164 flights | 69.7% on time148 flights | 77.7% on time150 flights | 75.9% on time145 flights | 74.8% on time150 flights |
| 10 AM–11 AM | 75.4% on time135 flights | 77.2% on time138 flights | 74.3% on time143 flights | 80.6% on time135 flights | 75.0% on time132 flights | 80.6% on time131 flights | 78.4% on time136 flights |
| 11 AM–12 PM | 73.6% on time126 flights | 111 flights, too few to score | 77.9% on time123 flights | 76.2% on time131 flights | 79.1% on time129 flights | 114 flights, too few to score | 63.3% on time121 flights |
| 12 PM–1 PM | 78.0% on time153 flights | 85.0% on time155 flights | 77.6% on time148 flights | 77.2% on time138 flights | 77.1% on time159 flights | 80.7% on time151 flights | 82.3% on time149 flights |
| 1 PM–2 PM | 71.9% on time129 flights | 75.0% on time129 flights | 77.2% on time124 flights | 68.2% on time131 flights | 71.6% on time143 flights | 73.2% on time140 flights | 67.7% on time131 flights |
| 2 PM–3 PM | 77.6% on time153 flights | 75.5% on time153 flights | 83.6% on time135 flights | 78.5% on time147 flights | 70.0% on time152 flights | 70.6% on time144 flights | 80.1% on time147 flights |
| 3 PM–4 PM | 65.1% on time167 flights | 68.0% on time150 flights | 64.0% on time141 flights | 72.2% on time182 flights | 61.2% on time166 flights | 67.3% on time156 flights | 59.4% on time178 flights |
| 4 PM–5 PM | 67.3% on time312 flights | 78.4% on time309 flights | 77.0% on time307 flights | 71.6% on time301 flights | 71.4% on time307 flights | 72.7% on time290 flights | 69.8% on time313 flights |
| 5 PM–6 PM | 63.9% on time159 flights | 69.9% on time145 flights | 66.2% on time152 flights | 63.9% on time152 flights | 65.5% on time149 flights | 63.4% on time156 flights | 57.9% on time154 flights |
| 6 PM–7 PM | 59.4% on time162 flights | 64.8% on time127 flights | 69.7% on time135 flights | 61.8% on time169 flights | 60.0% on time162 flights | 59.5% on time131 flights | 56.6% on time170 flights |
| 7 PM–8 PM | 64.7% on time157 flights | 61.9% on time142 flights | 63.6% on time141 flights | 61.6% on time149 flights | 64.2% on time149 flights | 67.4% on time138 flights | 54.3% on time140 flights |
| 8 PM–9 PM | 63.6% on time166 flights | 66.4% on time149 flights | 60.7% on time165 flights | 59.6% on time169 flights | 53.8% on time173 flights | 58.2% on time159 flights | 52.2% on time171 flights |
| 9 PM–10 PM | 59.3% on time183 flights | 65.2% on time157 flights | 71.0% on time162 flights | 59.2% on time190 flights | 57.4% on time189 flights | 65.1% on time153 flights | 51.1% on time190 flights |
| 10 PM–11 PM | 64.0% on time152 flights | 92 flights, too few to score | 65.3% on time124 flights | 57.5% on time172 flights | 56.3% on time153 flights | 116 flights, too few to score | 50.6% on time180 flights |
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 89.9% on time from 293 flights
- 6 AM: 88.4% on time from 1,938 flights
- 7 AM: 84.3% on time from 1,509 flights
- 8 AM: 81.5% on time from 1,240 flights
- 9 AM: 76.2% on time from 1,078 flights
- 10 AM: 77.3% on time from 950 flights
- 11 AM: 76.1% on time from 855 flights
- 12 PM: 79.7% on time from 1,053 flights
- 1 PM: 72.1% on time from 927 flights
- 2 PM: 76.5% on time from 1,031 flights
- 3 PM: 65.3% on time from 1,140 flights
- 4 PM: 72.6% on time from 2,139 flights
- 5 PM: 64.3% on time from 1,067 flights
- 6 PM: 61.4% on time from 1,056 flights
- 7 PM: 62.6% on time from 1,016 flights
- 8 PM: 59.1% on time from 1,152 flights
- 9 PM: 60.9% on time from 1,224 flights
- 10 PM: 57.9% on time from 989 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DFW → LAX 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 → LAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DFW → LAX, at 42.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 85.5% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 59.6%.
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 1.3 times at LAX. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: DFW 10.4% against 1.5%, LAX 1.0% against 0.8%. 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 | LAX |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 10.4% | 1.0% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.5% | 0.8% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 56.4% | 78.9% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 74.4% | 81.4% |
| Departures in bad weather | 72,822 | 60,639 |
Delta Air Lines (4.2% cancelled against 10.4% for the other carriers at DFW), 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| Airline | Bad-weather departures | Cancelled | Other carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 2,949 | 4.2%below the others | 10.4% |
| 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 LAX, 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), LAX, 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.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 14,776 | 70.0% | 1.71% | -2 min | 10.2% |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,694 | 77.2% | 0.93% | -6 min | 7.5% |
| Delta Air Lines | 2,232 | 86.4% | 0.99% | -9 min | 5.7% |
| Frontier Airlines | 958 | 71.5% | 1.36% | -3 min | 10.9% |
American Airlines flew 71.5% of the 20,660 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 16.4 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL439 (6:15 AM) arrived on time 91.3% of the time, 21.4 points more often than F93211 (4:39 PM) at 69.9%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 75.0%
- Feb: 79.9%
- Mar: 76.9%
- Apr: 71.9%
- May: 64.5%
- Jun: 63.5%
- Jul: 63.1%
- Aug: 67.6%
- Sep: 78.3%
- Oct: 79.8%
- Nov: 78.6%
- Dec: 79.6%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 16.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 61.6% from 565 flights
- August 2023: 67.4% from 604 flights
- September 2023: 74.8% from 557 flights
- October 2023: 81.8% from 600 flights
- November 2023: 79.0% from 553 flights
- December 2023: 84.1% from 591 flights
- January 2024: 70.7% from 551 flights
- February 2024: 79.5% from 503 flights
- March 2024: 70.0% from 552 flights
- April 2024: 69.8% from 584 flights
- May 2024: 52.3% from 653 flights
- June 2024: 62.6% from 602 flights
- July 2024: 59.6% from 634 flights
- August 2024: 73.8% from 609 flights
- September 2024: 83.3% from 551 flights
- October 2024: 82.7% from 592 flights
- November 2024: 80.1% from 565 flights
- December 2024: 80.6% from 617 flights
- January 2025: 79.1% from 569 flights
- February 2025: 84.1% from 496 flights
- March 2025: 79.9% from 606 flights
- April 2025: 71.3% from 576 flights
- May 2025: 69.8% from 578 flights
- June 2025: 63.1% from 553 flights
- July 2025: 60.8% from 564 flights
- August 2025: 61.0% from 559 flights
- September 2025: 76.6% from 485 flights
- October 2025: 74.5% from 559 flights
- November 2025: 76.7% from 532 flights
- December 2025: 73.4% from 508 flights
- January 2026: 75.1% from 477 flights
- February 2026: 75.5% from 445 flights
- March 2026: 80.5% from 548 flights
- April 2026: 74.9% from 513 flights
- May 2026: 73.6% from 527 flights
- June 2026: 64.8% from 521 flights
- July 2026: 70.8% from 561 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 73.0% against 75.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 20,660 DFW → LAX 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