Route profile
DFW→RSW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Dallas–Fort Worth to Fort Myers, 1,017 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 2% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,200 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DFW → RSW arrives on time 66.2% of the time; the return trip, RSW → DFW, arrives on time 73.5% of the time, a 7.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DFW → RSW spends 24.1 minutes on the ground on a 1,017-mile trip: 18.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DFW and 5.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at RSW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 95% of 5,368 comparable routes.
66.5% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 66.8% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
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 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where DFW to RSW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DFW to RSW struggles most at 11 AM: 65.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 15.1 points behind the 80.2% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.9 points.
Wednesday is the day DFW to RSW slips furthest against routes of similar length, 65.4% on time where they average 79.7%, 14.3 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 15.4 points.
In May, DFW to RSW runs 20.2 points below routes of similar length, 54.1% on time to 74.3%. Against all other routes the gap is 21.2 points.
American Airlines’ flights on DFW to RSW arrive on time 66.0% of the time, 8 points below the 74.0% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 9.1 points.
DFW to RSW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 11 AM departures | 65.1% | routes of similar length | 80.2% | −15.1 pts | 169 here, 186,699 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 65.4% | routes of similar length | 79.7% | −14.3 pts | 557 here, 388,998 there |
| Month: May | 54.1% | routes of similar length | 74.3% | −20.2 pts | 314 here, 236,913 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 66.0% | routes of similar length | 74.0% | −8.0 pts | 3,958 here, 539,032 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 1,017 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 → RSW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DFW → RSW cancelled 120 of 4,200 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 35. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 92.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 38 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 120 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.
111 cancellations, 92.5% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
6 cancellations, 5.0% 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, 2.5% 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.
120 coded cancellations were recorded on DFW → RSW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
75 min late
against a median of 1 min late
DFW → RSW has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 1 min late, but the worst tenth are 74 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 4,200 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at RSW after arriving from DFW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 50% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 60 min | 23% | High risk |
| 90 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 7.5% | 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 2.86% of the time and diverts 0.31% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,067 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 75 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,200 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DFW → RSW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 78.1% of the time, against 56.1% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 22.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 77.5% on time from 158 flights
- 8 AM: 77.8% on time from 362 flights
- 9 AM: 75.1% on time from 393 flights
- 10 AM: 78.5% on time from 594 flights
- 11 AM: 65.1% on time from 178 flights
- 12 PM: 69.8% on time from 196 flights
- 1 PM: 61.6% on time from 302 flights
- 2 PM: 66.2% on time from 158 flights
- 3 PM: 55.6% on time from 554 flights
- 4 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 60.1% on time from 349 flights
- 7 PM: 56.4% on time from 703 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why DFW → RSW 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 → RSW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DFW → RSW, at 50.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 78.1% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 56.1%.
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 | 4,084 | 66.0% | 2.77% | 1 min | 13.1% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 70.0%
- Feb: 78.7%
- Mar: 62.7%
- Apr: 61.4%
- May: 54.1%
- Jun: 56.7%
- Jul: 56.4%
- Aug: 64.0%
- Sep: 76.4%
- Oct: 79.8%
- Nov: 79.7%
- Dec: 69.8%
May is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 25.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (119)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (107)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (76)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (85)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (112)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (109)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- March 2024: 51.4% from 147 flights
- April 2024: 62.7% from 125 flights
- May 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- June 2024: 57.5% from 128 flights
- July 2024: 55.0% from 130 flights
- August 2024: too few flights to score (95)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (68)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (94)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (112)
- March 2025: 70.6% from 174 flights
- April 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- June 2025: 55.5% from 141 flights
- July 2025: 52.0% from 153 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (85)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (68)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (77)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (109)
- December 2025: 61.8% from 123 flights
- January 2026: 72.6% from 128 flights
- February 2026: too few flights to score (110)
- March 2026: 64.6% from 150 flights
- April 2026: 65.3% from 125 flights
- May 2026: 62.2% from 122 flights
- June 2026: 57.4% from 120 flights
- July 2026: 59.2% from 122 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 66.5% against 66.8% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,200 DFW → RSW 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