Route profile
LGA→DAL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New York to Dallas, 1,381 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 4,402 flights. How this is calculated
LGA → DAL arrives on time 76.3% of the time; the return trip, DAL → LGA, arrives on time 70.6% of the time, a 5.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
LGA → DAL spends 29.0 minutes on the ground on a 1,381-mile trip: 23.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LGA and 5.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at DAL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where LGA to DAL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LGA to DAL struggles most at 5 PM: 58.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10.6 points behind the 68.7% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.7 points.
LGA to DAL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 11 AM: 85.4% arrive on time, 6.3 points ahead of the 79.1% those routes manage at that hour.
Thursday is the day LGA to DAL slips furthest against routes of similar length, 72.9% on time where they average 76.7%, 3.8 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 3.9 points.
In May, LGA to DAL runs 6.1 points below routes of similar length, 68.1% on time to 74.2%. Against all other routes the gap is 7.2 points.
LGA to DAL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 58.1% | routes of similar length | 68.7% | −10.6 pts | 124 here, 107,708 there |
| Hour: 11 AM departures | 85.4% | routes of similar length | 79.1% | +6.3 pts | 240 here, 96,606 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 72.9% | routes of similar length | 76.7% | −3.8 pts | 646 here, 254,358 there |
| Month: May | 68.1% | routes of similar length | 74.2% | −6.1 pts | 360 here, 144,050 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 1,381 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 LGA → DAL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LGA → DAL cancelled 111 of 4,402 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 40. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 53.2% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 75 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 111 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.
59 cancellations, 53.2% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
34 cancellations, 30.6% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
18 cancellations, 16.2% 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.
111 coded cancellations were recorded on LGA → DAL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
51 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 4,402 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DAL after arriving from LGA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 40% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 23% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.4% | 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 2.52% of the time and diverts 0.61% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,264 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 4,402 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LGA → DAL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.0% of the time, against 61.1% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 28.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 91.1% on time from 744 flights
- 7 AM: 89.1% on time from 339 flights
- 8 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 83.0% on time from 585 flights
- 11 AM: 85.4% on time from 243 flights
- 12 PM: 82.5% on time from 179 flights
- 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 70.5% on time from 433 flights
- 3 PM: 66.0% on time from 190 flights
- 4 PM: 69.9% on time from 449 flights
- 5 PM: 58.1% on time from 134 flights
- 6 PM: 61.0% on time from 363 flights
- 7 PM: 56.9% on time from 244 flights
- 8 PM: 64.7% on time from 303 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why LGA → DAL runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s 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 LGA → DAL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on LGA → DAL, at 49.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.0% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 61.1%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 4,402 | 76.3% | 2.52% | -6 min | 8.8% |
Other ways to fly New York to Dallas–Fort Worth
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
LGA → DAL is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 76.3% on time, against 74.7% for LGA → DFW.
Flying to DAL from the New York area? Compare LGA, EWR, JFK for DAL, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 6.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.0%
- Feb: 83.7%
- Mar: 79.4%
- Apr: 75.5%
- May: 68.1%
- Jun: 67.0%
- Jul: 71.1%
- Aug: 76.5%
- Sep: 81.7%
- Oct: 78.1%
- Nov: 82.3%
- Dec: 75.4%
June is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 16.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (117)
- August 2023: 83.2% from 120 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (111)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (116)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (115)
- December 2023: 85.7% from 121 flights
- January 2024: too few flights to score (117)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (114)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (105)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (102)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (105)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (111)
- October 2024: 90.8% from 120 flights
- November 2024: 89.2% from 120 flights
- December 2024: 74.8% from 132 flights
- January 2025: 79.3% from 121 flights
- February 2025: too few flights to score (104)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- July 2025: 74.1% from 120 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- October 2025: 64.0% from 120 flights
- November 2025: 73.0% from 120 flights
- December 2025: 66.4% from 133 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (119)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (104)
- March 2026: 73.8% from 139 flights
- April 2026: 76.4% from 141 flights
- May 2026: 66.9% from 145 flights
- June 2026: 67.2% from 138 flights
- July 2026: 75.2% from 143 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 73.2% against 78.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,402 LGA → DAL 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