Route profile
MCI→DFW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Kansas City to Dallas–Fort Worth, 460 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 10% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,745 flights. How this is calculated
MCI → DFW arrives on time 74.9% of the time; the return trip, DFW → MCI, arrives on time 69.6% of the time, a 5.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MCI → DFW spends 31.0 minutes on the ground on a 460-mile trip: 16.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MCI and 14.3 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 MCI to DFW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MCI to DFW struggles most at 7 AM: 75.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 12.4 points behind the 88.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.9 points.
Saturday is the day MCI to DFW slips furthest against routes of similar length, 73.3% on time where they average 80.2%, 6.9 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 5.8 points.
In June, MCI to DFW runs 8.2 points below routes of similar length, 65.3% on time to 73.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
October is kinder to MCI to DFW than to routes of similar length: 86.1% on time against 82.9%, 3.2 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 3.1 points.
MCI to DFW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 75.9% | routes of similar length | 88.3% | −12.4 pts | 849 here, 107,045 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 73.3% | routes of similar length | 80.2% | −6.9 pts | 996 here, 187,915 there |
| Month: June | 65.3% | routes of similar length | 73.5% | −8.2 pts | 631 here, 130,300 there |
| Month: October | 86.1% | routes of similar length | 82.9% | +3.2 pts | 663 here, 138,136 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 460 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 → DFW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MCI → DFW cancelled 201 of 7,745 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 39. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 87.6% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 44 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 201 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.
176 cancellations, 87.6% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
19 cancellations, 9.5% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
6 cancellations, 3.0% 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.
201 coded cancellations were recorded on MCI → DFW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
61 min late
against a median of 5 min early
MCI → DFW has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 5 min early, but the worst tenth are 66 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 7,745 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DFW after arriving from MCI.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 24% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 10% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.8% | 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 2.60% of the time and diverts 0.30% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,521 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 61 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,745 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MCI → DFW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 81.3% of the time, against 63.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 17.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 85.9% on time from 1,019 flights
- 6 AM: 82.1% on time from 293 flights
- 7 AM: 75.9% on time from 874 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 81.3% on time from 1,017 flights
- 10 AM: 80.9% on time from 636 flights
- 11 AM: 76.4% on time from 421 flights
- 12 PM: 77.4% on time from 506 flights
- 1 PM: 73.9% on time from 292 flights
- 2 PM: 66.5% on time from 292 flights
- 3 PM: 75.1% on time from 194 flights
- 4 PM: 64.5% on time from 534 flights
- 5 PM: 63.9% on time from 493 flights
- 6 PM: 66.5% on time from 451 flights
- 7 PM: 60.3% on time from 595 flights
- 8 PM: 68.9% on time from 124 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MCI → 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 MCI → DFW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MCI → 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 81.3% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 63.6%.
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 | 6,339 | 74.1% | 2.48% | -4 min | 10.7% |
| Envoy Air | 1,131 | 81.4% | 1.86% | -9 min | 6.4% |
American Airlines flew 84.9% of the 7,470 flights listed.
Envoy Air arrived on time 7.3 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.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1098 American Airlines | 5:25 AM | 887 | 85.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Thursday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 72.6%
- Feb: 81.5%
- Mar: 77.9%
- Apr: 74.5%
- May: 70.4%
- Jun: 65.3%
- Jul: 67.8%
- Aug: 72.4%
- Sep: 81.7%
- Oct: 86.1%
- Nov: 77.0%
- Dec: 74.4%
June is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 20.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 64.9% from 203 flights
- August 2023: 68.4% from 213 flights
- September 2023: 87.2% from 189 flights
- October 2023: 84.1% from 204 flights
- November 2023: 76.2% from 189 flights
- December 2023: 77.4% from 177 flights
- January 2024: 57.1% from 192 flights
- February 2024: 83.0% from 194 flights
- March 2024: 79.5% from 192 flights
- April 2024: 75.9% from 204 flights
- May 2024: 63.0% from 231 flights
- June 2024: 72.8% from 212 flights
- July 2024: 67.0% from 220 flights
- August 2024: 81.8% from 237 flights
- September 2024: 84.5% from 214 flights
- October 2024: 88.6% from 236 flights
- November 2024: 84.1% from 212 flights
- December 2024: 78.9% from 211 flights
- January 2025: 81.8% from 199 flights
- February 2025: 74.9% from 194 flights
- March 2025: 72.2% from 207 flights
- April 2025: 65.1% from 205 flights
- May 2025: 73.1% from 215 flights
- June 2025: 52.9% from 230 flights
- July 2025: 57.8% from 240 flights
- August 2025: 65.9% from 227 flights
- September 2025: 74.1% from 217 flights
- October 2025: 85.4% from 229 flights
- November 2025: 70.7% from 217 flights
- December 2025: 67.6% from 214 flights
- January 2026: 81.2% from 173 flights
- February 2026: 87.3% from 166 flights
- March 2026: 81.9% from 208 flights
- April 2026: 81.9% from 206 flights
- May 2026: 75.4% from 218 flights
- June 2026: 71.1% from 222 flights
- July 2026: 81.5% from 228 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.7% against 74.5% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,745 MCI → 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