Route profile
ONT→DFW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Ontario to Dallas–Fort Worth, 1,188 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 32% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,290 flights. How this is calculated
ONT → DFW arrives on time 80.0% of the time; the return trip, DFW → ONT, arrives on time 69.7% of the time, a 10.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ONT → DFW spends 27.2 minutes on the ground on a 1,188-mile trip: 13.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ONT and 13.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at DFW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 99% of 4,467 comparable routes.
81.6% on time on the best day (Thursday) against 79.0% on the worst (Friday).
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 ONT to DFW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
ONT to DFW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 11 PM: 86.6% arrive on time, 10.6 points ahead of the 76.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.5 points.
ONT to DFW struggles most at 10 AM: 77.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 3.5 points behind the 81.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4.8 points.
ONT to DFW holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 79.4% on time to their 73.5%, a 5.9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.6 points.
February is kinder to ONT to DFW than to routes of similar length: 88.3% on time against 80.5%, 7.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.9 points.
American Airlines does better on ONT to DFW than on its routes of similar length: 81.2% on time here, 74.7% there, 6.5 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
ONT to DFW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 11 PM departures | 86.6% | routes of similar length | 76.0% | +10.6 pts | 752 here, 7,439 there |
| Hour: 10 AM departures | 77.9% | routes of similar length | 81.4% | −3.5 pts | 1,067 here, 112,822 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 79.4% | routes of similar length | 73.5% | +5.9 pts | 1,058 here, 306,107 there |
| Month: February | 88.3% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | +7.8 pts | 453 here, 157,339 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 81.2% | routes of similar length | 74.7% | +6.5 pts | 5,937 here, 470,236 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 1,188 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 ONT → DFW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
ONT → DFW cancelled 158 of 7,290 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 46. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 81.6% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 57 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 158 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.
129 cancellations, 81.6% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
27 cancellations, 17.1% 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, 1.3% 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.
158 coded cancellations were recorded on ONT → DFW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
44 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 7,290 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DFW after arriving from ONT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.7% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.0% | 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 2.17% of the time and diverts 0.60% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,088 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 44 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,290 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ONT → DFW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.0% of the time, against 67.8% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 19.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM: 82.4% on time from 141 flights
- 1 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 90.3% on time from 187 flights
- 6 AM: 88.4% on time from 1,179 flights
- 7 AM: 87.0% on time from 643 flights
- 8 AM: 83.0% on time from 539 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 77.9% on time from 1,095 flights
- 11 AM: 75.2% on time from 138 flights
- 12 PM: 74.6% on time from 899 flights
- 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 70.9% on time from 1,059 flights
- 3 PM: 68.4% on time from 138 flights
- 4 PM to 10 PM: too few flights to score
- 11 PM: 86.6% on time from 783 flights
Why ONT → DFW 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 ONT → DFW. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 6,107 | 81.2% | 2.10% | -9 min | 7.7% |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,183 | 73.8% | 2.54% | -7 min | 8.7% |
American Airlines flew 83.8% of the 7,290 flights listed.
American Airlines arrived on time 7.4 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Los Angeles 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAX→DFW Los Angeles to Dallas–Fort Worth | 20,649 | 76.9% | 1.61% | -5 min | 56 |
| ONT→DFW this route Ontario to Dallas–Fort Worth | 7,290 | 80.0% | 2.17% | -8 min | 59 |
Flying to DFW from the Los Angeles area? Compare ONT, LAX, SNA, BUR for DFW, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1412 American Airlines | 6:00 AM | 1,127 | 89.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Thursday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 2.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.2%
- Feb: 88.3%
- Mar: 81.8%
- Apr: 83.5%
- May: 76.3%
- Jun: 76.1%
- Jul: 72.4%
- Aug: 74.0%
- Sep: 83.4%
- Oct: 85.9%
- Nov: 82.1%
- Dec: 79.8%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 15.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 70.9% from 208 flights
- August 2023: 75.8% from 233 flights
- September 2023: 87.1% from 226 flights
- October 2023: 84.3% from 201 flights
- November 2023: 86.7% from 182 flights
- December 2023: 82.3% from 175 flights
- January 2024: 79.8% from 177 flights
- February 2024: 88.8% from 161 flights
- March 2024: 82.2% from 204 flights
- April 2024: 82.8% from 211 flights
- May 2024: 65.9% from 218 flights
- June 2024: 82.4% from 209 flights
- July 2024: 75.4% from 212 flights
- August 2024: 79.5% from 208 flights
- September 2024: 85.6% from 209 flights
- October 2024: 92.9% from 212 flights
- November 2024: 83.2% from 190 flights
- December 2024: 75.3% from 193 flights
- January 2025: 85.0% from 156 flights
- February 2025: 89.5% from 144 flights
- March 2025: 81.4% from 181 flights
- April 2025: 80.4% from 227 flights
- May 2025: 81.2% from 214 flights
- June 2025: 70.3% from 218 flights
- July 2025: 65.7% from 224 flights
- August 2025: 66.3% from 213 flights
- September 2025: 76.3% from 183 flights
- October 2025: 80.2% from 207 flights
- November 2025: 76.2% from 188 flights
- December 2025: 81.8% from 201 flights
- January 2026: 82.2% from 168 flights
- February 2026: 86.6% from 152 flights
- March 2026: 81.7% from 184 flights
- April 2026: 88.2% from 180 flights
- May 2026: 82.4% from 197 flights
- June 2026: 75.9% from 210 flights
- July 2026: 77.7% from 214 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.3% against 80.4% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,290 ONT → 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