Route profile
OAK→DAL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Oakland to Dallas, 1,468 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 75% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,802 flights. How this is calculated
OAK → DAL arrives on time 79.5% of the time; the return trip, DAL → OAK, arrives on time 71.7% of the time, a 7.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
OAK → DAL spends 18.1 minutes on the ground on a 1,468-mile trip: 12.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at OAK and 5.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at DAL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Which day you fly matters unusually much here, a wider weekday spread than 95% of 4,467 comparable routes.
89.7% on time on a typical Saturday, against 74.4% on a 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.
What sets this route apart
Where OAK to DAL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
OAK to DAL struggles most at 5 PM: 64.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5 points behind the 69.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 5.2 points.
OAK to DAL holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 89.7% on time to their 78.7%, a 11 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.6 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on OAK to DAL than on its routes of similar length: 79.5% on time here, 75.8% there, 3.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 2.1 points.
OAK to DAL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 64.6% | routes of similar length | 69.6% | −5.0 pts | 435 here, 98,025 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 89.7% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | +11.0 pts | 213 here, 192,604 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 79.5% | routes of similar length | 75.8% | +3.7 pts | 1,785 here, 310,514 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 1,468 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
35 min late
against a median of 2 min early
Percentiles over 1,802 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DAL after arriving from OAK.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 45% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 2.9% | 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 0.50% of the time and diverts 0.44% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,785 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 1,802 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
OAK → DAL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.2% of the time, against 65.4% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 25.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.8% on time from 488 flights
- 6 AM: 91.5% on time from 205 flights
- 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 80.3% on time from 134 flights
- 9 AM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 64.6% on time from 436 flights
- 6 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why OAK → DAL runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 OAK → DAL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 | 1,802 | 79.5% | 0.50% | -2 min | 5.3% |
Other ways to fly San Francisco to Dallas–Fort Worth
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SFO→DFW San Francisco to Dallas–Fort Worth | 12,711 | 74.9% | 1.83% | -5 min | 52 |
| OAK→DAL this route Oakland to Dallas | 1,802 | 79.5% | 0.50% | -2 min | 75 |
OAK → DAL is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 79.5% on time, against 74.9% for SFO → DFW.
Flying to DAL from the San Francisco area? Compare OAK, SFO, SJC for DAL, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 15.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.4%
- Feb: no data
- Mar: 78.6%
- Apr: 78.4%
- May: 77.2%
- Jun: 69.8%
- Jul: 72.1%
- Aug: 79.6%
- Sep: 83.1%
- Oct: 85.6%
- Nov: 86.4%
- Dec: 83.2%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 16.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.9% against 79.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,802 OAK → 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