Route profile
MCI→DAL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Kansas City to Dallas, 461 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 67% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,302 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MCI → DAL arrives on time 81.6% of the time; the return trip, DAL → MCI, arrives on time 77.2% of the time, a 4.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MCI → DAL spends 17.1 minutes on the ground on a 461-mile trip: 11.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MCI and 5.5 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 MCI to DAL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MCI to DAL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 74.3% arrive on time, 6.4 points ahead of the 67.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.5 points.
MCI to DAL holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 82.8% on time to their 75.8%, a 7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.6 points.
August is kinder to MCI to DAL than to routes of similar length: 85.3% on time against 77.6%, 7.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.8 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on MCI to DAL than on its routes of similar length: 81.6% on time here, 78.0% there, 3.6 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.2 points.
MCI to DAL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 74.3% | routes of similar length | 67.9% | +6.4 pts | 600 here, 92,252 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 82.8% | routes of similar length | 75.8% | +7.0 pts | 924 here, 239,610 there |
| Month: August | 85.3% | routes of similar length | 77.6% | +7.7 pts | 497 here, 133,976 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 81.6% | routes of similar length | 78.0% | +3.6 pts | 6,199 here, 443,508 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 461 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 MCI → DAL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MCI → DAL cancelled 87 of 6,302 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 72. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 82.8% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 88 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 87 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.
72 cancellations, 82.8% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
13 cancellations, 14.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
2 cancellations, 2.3% 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.
87 coded cancellations were recorded on MCI → DAL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
35 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 6,302 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DAL after arriving from MCI.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.6% | Low 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 0.25% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,199 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 35 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,302 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MCI → DAL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.9% of the time, against 65.7% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 28.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.6% on time from 511 flights
- 6 AM: 95.0% on time from 522 flights
- 7 AM: 94.1% on time from 311 flights
- 8 AM: 92.3% on time from 343 flights
- 9 AM: 90.8% on time from 238 flights
- 10 AM: 86.9% on time from 431 flights
- 11 AM: 86.2% on time from 323 flights
- 12 PM: 86.1% on time from 401 flights
- 1 PM: 84.6% on time from 244 flights
- 2 PM: 78.7% on time from 388 flights
- 3 PM: 75.6% on time from 361 flights
- 4 PM: 73.7% on time from 270 flights
- 5 PM: 67.5% on time from 390 flights
- 6 PM: 71.2% on time from 281 flights
- 7 PM: 74.3% on time from 606 flights
- 8 PM: 65.9% on time from 185 flights
- 9 PM: 65.7% on time from 497 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MCI → 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 MCI → DAL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MCI → DAL, at 55.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.9% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 65.7%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 6,302 | 81.6% | 1.38% | -6 min | 5.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 11.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.8%
- Feb: 87.3%
- Mar: 82.6%
- Apr: 82.6%
- May: 74.6%
- Jun: 73.3%
- Jul: 74.2%
- Aug: 85.3%
- Sep: 85.3%
- Oct: 87.2%
- Nov: 85.7%
- Dec: 82.0%
June is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 14.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 66.9% from 178 flights
- August 2023: 83.5% from 178 flights
- September 2023: 83.8% from 168 flights
- October 2023: 85.8% from 178 flights
- November 2023: 89.5% from 172 flights
- December 2023: 86.7% from 180 flights
- January 2024: 71.8% from 157 flights
- February 2024: 90.8% from 141 flights
- March 2024: 86.2% from 175 flights
- April 2024: 78.6% from 176 flights
- May 2024: 70.3% from 180 flights
- June 2024: 81.1% from 171 flights
- July 2024: 82.1% from 174 flights
- August 2024: 90.8% from 164 flights
- September 2024: 90.4% from 157 flights
- October 2024: 91.6% from 179 flights
- November 2024: 83.5% from 171 flights
- December 2024: 80.0% from 182 flights
- January 2025: 83.6% from 163 flights
- February 2025: 83.1% from 154 flights
- March 2025: 83.3% from 183 flights
- April 2025: 82.1% from 177 flights
- May 2025: 77.6% from 179 flights
- June 2025: 73.8% from 167 flights
- July 2025: 73.6% from 166 flights
- August 2025: 81.6% from 158 flights
- September 2025: 81.6% from 155 flights
- October 2025: 84.4% from 180 flights
- November 2025: 83.9% from 171 flights
- December 2025: 79.2% from 179 flights
- January 2026: 89.4% from 159 flights
- February 2026: 88.4% from 155 flights
- March 2026: 78.6% from 184 flights
- April 2026: 87.1% from 180 flights
- May 2026: 76.0% from 179 flights
- June 2026: 64.8% from 167 flights
- July 2026: 74.5% from 165 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.7% against 82.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,302 MCI → 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