Route profile
IND→DFW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Indianapolis to Dallas–Fort Worth, 761 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 24% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,013 flights. How this is calculated
IND → DFW arrives on time 78.1% of the time; the return trip, DFW → IND, arrives on time 70.2% of the time, a 7.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IND → DFW spends 31.2 minutes on the ground on a 761-mile trip: 16.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IND and 15.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at DFW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where IND to DFW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IND to DFW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 77.2% arrive on time, 7.7 points ahead of the 69.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.5 points.
IND to DFW struggles most at 7 AM: 80.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 7.7 points behind the 88.1% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
In January, IND to DFW runs 6.2 points below routes of similar length, 73.2% on time to 79.4%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.9 points.
October is kinder to IND to DFW than to routes of similar length: 88.8% on time against 83.0%, 5.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 5.8 points.
American Airlines does better on IND to DFW than on its routes of similar length: 78.4% on time here, 74.4% there, 4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.3 points.
IND to DFW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 77.2% | routes of similar length | 69.5% | +7.7 pts | 259 here, 130,252 there |
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 80.4% | routes of similar length | 88.1% | −7.7 pts | 831 here, 167,464 there |
| Month: January | 73.2% | routes of similar length | 79.4% | −6.2 pts | 388 here, 162,223 there |
| Month: October | 88.8% | routes of similar length | 83.0% | +5.8 pts | 534 here, 193,135 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 78.4% | routes of similar length | 74.4% | +4.0 pts | 5,482 here, 335,533 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 761 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 IND → DFW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
IND → DFW cancelled 128 of 6,013 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 47. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 86.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 54 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 128 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, 86.7% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
16 cancellations, 12.5% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
1 cancellation, 0.8% 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.
128 coded cancellations were recorded on IND → DFW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
51 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 6,013 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DFW after arriving from IND.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 36% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.7% | 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 2.13% of the time and diverts 0.40% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,861 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 51 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,013 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IND → DFW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 84.5% of the time, against 64.0% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 20.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 88.7% on time from 574 flights
- 6 AM: 87.9% on time from 642 flights
- 7 AM: 80.4% on time from 845 flights
- 8 AM: 80.5% on time from 251 flights
- 9 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 83.4% on time from 1,076 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 76.2% on time from 170 flights
- 2 PM: 74.6% on time from 517 flights
- 3 PM: 70.9% on time from 355 flights
- 4 PM: 77.2% on time from 260 flights
- 5 PM: 64.9% on time from 175 flights
- 6 PM: 68.8% on time from 248 flights
- 7 PM: 61.6% on time from 468 flights
- 8 PM: 64.1% on time from 270 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IND → DFW 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 IND → DFW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IND → DFW, at 46.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 84.5% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 64.0%.
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 | 5,626 | 78.4% | 2.15% | -8 min | 8.8% |
| Frontier Airlines | 268 | 70.5% | 2.24% | -1 min | 10.0% |
American Airlines flew 95.5% of the 5,894 flights listed.
American Airlines arrived on time 7.9 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 73.2%
- Feb: 85.9%
- Mar: 81.3%
- Apr: 77.3%
- May: 75.9%
- Jun: 67.3%
- Jul: 69.0%
- Aug: 74.6%
- Sep: 82.2%
- Oct: 88.8%
- Nov: 85.8%
- Dec: 80.0%
June is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 21.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 67.3% from 154 flights
- August 2023: 74.3% from 171 flights
- September 2023: 80.9% from 158 flights
- October 2023: 85.3% from 151 flights
- November 2023: 90.8% from 142 flights
- December 2023: 87.8% from 140 flights
- January 2024: 64.6% from 127 flights
- February 2024: 83.5% from 128 flights
- March 2024: 87.2% from 152 flights
- April 2024: 78.2% from 152 flights
- May 2024: 72.4% from 171 flights
- June 2024: 68.1% from 165 flights
- July 2024: 67.5% from 169 flights
- August 2024: 74.8% from 159 flights
- September 2024: 84.4% from 155 flights
- October 2024: 91.0% from 178 flights
- November 2024: 83.6% from 163 flights
- December 2024: 84.0% from 162 flights
- January 2025: 72.1% from 147 flights
- February 2025: 85.0% from 134 flights
- March 2025: 79.0% from 185 flights
- April 2025: 70.0% from 156 flights
- May 2025: 69.8% from 172 flights
- June 2025: 65.3% from 183 flights
- July 2025: 65.6% from 191 flights
- August 2025: 74.6% from 197 flights
- September 2025: 81.5% from 200 flights
- October 2025: 89.3% from 208 flights
- November 2025: 83.6% from 168 flights
- December 2025: 68.5% from 146 flights
- January 2026: 83.2% from 143 flights
- February 2026: 89.2% from 133 flights
- March 2026: 78.4% from 155 flights
- April 2026: 83.4% from 161 flights
- May 2026: 85.7% from 166 flights
- June 2026: 68.6% from 180 flights
- July 2026: 75.0% from 191 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.0% against 76.8% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,013 IND → DFW 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