DFW → SEA Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · DFWNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Dallas–Fort Worth airport profile →

Destination · SEANo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Seattle airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

52/ 100Fair

Better than 18% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 15,630 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

71.5%

10,959 of 15,332

Cancellation rate

1.70%

265 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-1 min

Average 12.3 min

Severe delays

9.0%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

65 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

15,630

3 carriers

DFW → SEA arrives on time 71.5% of the time; the return trip, SEA → DFW, arrives on time 76.3% of the time, a 4.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

DFW → SEA spends 32.9 minutes on the ground on a 1,660-mile trip: 20.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DFW and 12.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at SEA.

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 97% of 4,467 comparable routes.

72.5% on time on the best day (Saturday) against 68.7% on the worst (Sunday).

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 → SEA flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

DFW → SEA cancelled 265 of 15,630 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 59. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 67.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 87 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather67.9%

Airline30.2%

Air traffic1.9%

Security0.0%

Of 265 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 87

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

180 cancellations, 67.9% of the total.

The airline1 in 195

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

80 cancellations, 30.2% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 3,126

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

5 cancellations, 1.9% 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.

265 coded cancellations were recorded on DFW → SEA; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

55 min late

against a median of 1 min early

Arrived an hour or more late9.0%

Typical delay when late65 min

Cancelled1.70%

Landed somewhere else0.21%

Percentiles over 15,630 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at SEA after arriving from DFW.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, DFW → SEA arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	47%	Likely to miss
45 min	28%	High risk
60 min	18%	High risk
90 min	8.8%	Some risk
120 min	5.2%	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 1.70% of the time and diverts 0.21% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 15,332 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 55 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 15,630 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

DFW → SEA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 80.0% of the time, against 55.1% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 24.9 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 9.4 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 1.2 points.

On-time arrival rate for DFW to SEA by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
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

40–49
50–59
60–69
70–79
80–89

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 (967 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 SEA. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	75.0% on time173 flights	76.6% on time146 flights	76.0% on time149 flights	77.3% on time158 flights	79.1% on time176 flights	72.8% on time155 flights	74.7% on time158 flights
7 AM–8 AM	88.0% on time238 flights	83.8% on time200 flights	81.7% on time197 flights	87.5% on time218 flights	86.8% on time236 flights	86.7% on time206 flights	83.4% on time202 flights
8 AM–9 AM	77.2% on time230 flights	79.2% on time245 flights	75.6% on time235 flights	80.2% on time230 flights	79.2% on time227 flights	74.5% on time225 flights	77.9% on time230 flights
9 AM–10 AM	99 flights, too few to score	85 flights, too few to score	84 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	81.4% on time180 flights	81.1% on time181 flights	76.3% on time177 flights	82.1% on time176 flights	81.0% on time175 flights	78.4% on time165 flights	78.9% on time176 flights
11 AM–12 PM	3 flights, too few to score	3 flights, too few to score	3 flights, too few to score	3 flights, too few to score	3 flights, too few to score	4 flights, too few to score	3 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	80.0% on time159 flights	80.8% on time158 flights	80.8% on time158 flights	81.6% on time165 flights	76.0% on time158 flights	84.9% on time141 flights	76.1% on time160 flights
1 PM–2 PM	113 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score	116 flights, too few to score	107 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score	115 flights, too few to score	110 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	117 flights, too few to score	105 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score	115 flights, too few to score	68.6% on time121 flights	111 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	111 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score	98 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	68.7% on time199 flights	70.2% on time192 flights	76.3% on time187 flights	70.7% on time193 flights	68.9% on time198 flights	70.9% on time155 flights	68.1% on time192 flights
5 PM–6 PM	71.2% on time158 flights	66.7% on time150 flights	67.3% on time155 flights	68.5% on time156 flights	69.5% on time157 flights	71.5% on time137 flights	74.8% on time158 flights
6 PM–7 PM	61.1% on time146 flights	63.7% on time135 flights	69.0% on time132 flights	66.2% on time141 flights	58.6% on time143 flights	64.5% on time123 flights	64.1% on time145 flights
7 PM–8 PM	59.0% on time120 flights	52.5% on time120 flights	119 flights, too few to score	50.4% on time127 flights	50.4% on time121 flights	76 flights, too few to score	42.4% on time129 flights
8 PM–9 PM	62.3% on time149 flights	118 flights, too few to score	66.7% on time128 flights	55.3% on time167 flights	58.0% on time146 flights	107 flights, too few to score	54.9% on time166 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM80.0%

9 AM–12 PM76.0%

12–3 PM75.1%

3–6 PM70.4%

6–9 PM58.5%

9 PM–5 AM55.1%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why DFW → SEA runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft42.0%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline33.3%

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

Air traffic control16.4%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather7.9%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.4%

screening or terminal security incidents

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

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DFW → SEA, at 42.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 80.0% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 55.1%.

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 1.9 times at SEA. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: DFW 10.4% against 1.5%, SEA 1.5% 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 and SEA in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	DFW	SEA
Cancelled in bad weather	10.4%	1.5%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.5%	0.8%
Arrived on time, bad weather	56.4%	75.4%
Arrived on time, normal hours	74.4%	79.3%
Departures in bad weather	72,822	43,416

Delta Air Lines (4.2% cancelled against 10.4% for the other carriers at DFW) and Alaska Airlines (4.9% cancelled against 10.0% 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 SEA, against the other carriers at DFW in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
Delta Air Lines	2,949	4.2%below the others	10.4%
Alaska Airlines	533	4.9%below the others	10.0%
American Airlines	38,491	10.0%about level	10.9%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from DFW and SEA, 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), SEA, 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	8,419	70.2%	1.90%	-1 min	10.2%
Alaska Airlines	5,570	70.9%	1.47%	0 min	7.6%
Delta Air Lines	1,453	82.0%	1.45%	-9 min	7.0%

American Airlines flew 54.5% of the 15,442 flights listed.

Delta Air Lines arrived on time 11.8 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.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
AS543 Alaska Airlines	8:00 AM	1,060	72.7%
AS365 Alaska Airlines	6:00 AM	1,042	72.1%
AS415 Alaska Airlines	3:19 PM	965	76.1%
AA2009 American Airlines	5:05 PM	934	66.3%
DL804 Delta Air Lines	7:00 AM	754	87.4%
AA2003 American Airlines	6:50 PM	609	60.3%

DL804 (7:00 AM) arrived on time 87.4% of the time, 27.1 points more often than AA2003 (6:50 PM) at 60.3%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon71.7%

Tue72.3%

Wed72.1%

Thu71.6%

Fri71.7%

Sat72.5%

Sun68.7%

Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 3.8 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

June is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 18.0 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 70.6% against 72.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.9 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 15,630 DFW → SEA 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 SEA airport Return direction SEA → DFW

DFW→SEA

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why DFW → SEA 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 → SEA 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

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology