Route profile
DFW→PIT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Dallas–Fort Worth to Pittsburgh, 1,067 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 23% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,727 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DFW → PIT arrives on time 73.4% of the time; the return trip, PIT → DFW, arrives on time 78.3% of the time, a 4.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DFW → PIT spends 23.8 minutes on the ground on a 1,067-mile trip: 18.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DFW and 5.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at PIT.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where DFW to PIT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DFW to PIT struggles most at 5 PM: 58.7% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 8.9 points behind the 67.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.1 points.
Wednesday is the day DFW to PIT slips furthest against routes of similar length, 73.1% on time where they average 79.5%, 6.4 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
In June, DFW to PIT runs 9.9 points below routes of similar length, 61.7% on time to 71.6%. Against all other routes the gap is 11 points.
DFW to PIT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 58.7% | routes of similar length | 67.6% | −8.9 pts | 196 here, 175,362 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 73.1% | routes of similar length | 79.5% | −6.4 pts | 647 here, 393,326 there |
| Month: June | 61.7% | routes of similar length | 71.6% | −9.9 pts | 449 here, 230,642 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 1,067 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 → PIT flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DFW → PIT cancelled 65 of 4,727 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 73. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 83.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 88 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 65 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.
54 cancellations, 83.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
11 cancellations, 16.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
0 cancellations, 0.0% 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.
65 coded cancellations were recorded on DFW → PIT; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
58 min late
against a median of 3 min early
DFW → PIT has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 3 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 4,727 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PIT after arriving from DFW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 44% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 26% | High risk |
| 60 min | 18% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.1% | 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 1.38% of the time and diverts 0.08% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,658 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 58 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,727 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DFW → PIT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 86.8% of the time, against 58.7% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 28.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 87.2% on time from 998 flights
- 8 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 81.8% on time from 403 flights
- 11 AM: 73.5% on time from 702 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 78.0% on time from 125 flights
- 2 PM: 72.5% on time from 763 flights
- 3 PM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 58.7% on time from 198 flights
- 6 PM: 64.9% on time from 667 flights
- 7 PM: 63.7% on time from 423 flights
- 8 PM: 57.1% on time from 195 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why DFW → PIT 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 → PIT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DFW → PIT, at 51.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 86.8% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 58.7%.
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 | 4,651 | 73.5% | 1.33% | -3 min | 9.6% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1761 American Airlines | 6:51 PM | 736 | 62.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Friday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 71.2%
- Feb: 78.9%
- Mar: 74.5%
- Apr: 73.5%
- May: 68.9%
- Jun: 61.7%
- Jul: 65.7%
- Aug: 68.2%
- Sep: 82.4%
- Oct: 85.2%
- Nov: 80.5%
- Dec: 79.4%
June is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 23.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 65.9% from 136 flights
- August 2023: 68.4% from 153 flights
- September 2023: 80.8% from 130 flights
- October 2023: too few flights to score (117)
- November 2023: 85.3% from 129 flights
- December 2023: too few flights to score (119)
- January 2024: 70.3% from 120 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- March 2024: 74.0% from 124 flights
- April 2024: too few flights to score (118)
- May 2024: 61.2% from 155 flights
- June 2024: 61.9% from 162 flights
- July 2024: 67.9% from 161 flights
- August 2024: 75.4% from 127 flights
- September 2024: too few flights to score (117)
- October 2024: 86.3% from 139 flights
- November 2024: too few flights to score (100)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (101)
- January 2025: 78.8% from 122 flights
- February 2025: too few flights to score (112)
- March 2025: 80.7% from 122 flights
- April 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- May 2025: 70.5% from 123 flights
- June 2025: 59.3% from 147 flights
- July 2025: 61.1% from 152 flights
- August 2025: 61.2% from 133 flights
- September 2025: 82.8% from 120 flights
- October 2025: 83.1% from 136 flights
- November 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- December 2025: 73.8% from 130 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (101)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (93)
- March 2026: 69.0% from 126 flights
- April 2026: 81.3% from 123 flights
- May 2026: 76.2% from 134 flights
- June 2026: 63.9% from 146 flights
- July 2026: 67.8% from 152 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 72.3% against 75.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,727 DFW → PIT 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