Route profile
RDU→DFW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Raleigh–Durham to Dallas–Fort Worth, 1,061 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 21% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,820 flights. How this is calculated
RDU → DFW arrives on time 76.7% of the time; the return trip, DFW → RDU, arrives on time 69.5% of the time, a 7.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
RDU → DFW spends 31.0 minutes on the ground on a 1,061-mile trip: 15.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at RDU and 15.5 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 95% of 4,467 comparable routes.
79.3% on time on the best day (Tuesday) against 75.2% on the worst (Saturday).
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 RDU to DFW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
RDU to DFW struggles most at 5 PM: 52.2% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 15.4 points behind the 67.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 17.6 points.
February is kinder to RDU to DFW than to routes of similar length: 85.8% on time against 80.3%, 5.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 4.4 points.
American Airlines does better on RDU to DFW than on its routes of similar length: 77.0% on time here, 74.0% there, 3 points apart.
RDU to DFW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 52.2% | routes of similar length | 67.6% | −15.4 pts | 247 here, 175,294 there |
| Month: February | 85.8% | routes of similar length | 80.3% | +5.5 pts | 450 here, 213,520 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 77.0% | routes of similar length | 74.0% | +3.0 pts | 6,030 here, 580,814 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 1,061 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 RDU → DFW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
RDU → DFW cancelled 148 of 6,820 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 46. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 87.8% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 52 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 148 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.
130 cancellations, 87.8% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
17 cancellations, 11.5% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
1 cancellation, 0.7% 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.
148 coded cancellations were recorded on RDU → DFW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
50 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 6,820 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DFW after arriving from RDU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 40% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.6% | 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 2.17% of the time and diverts 0.54% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,635 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 50 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,820 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
RDU → DFW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 86.0% of the time, against 61.8% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 24.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 90.2% on time from 1,025 flights
- 6 AM: 81.5% on time from 613 flights
- 7 AM: 84.8% on time from 487 flights
- 8 AM: 84.5% on time from 620 flights
- 9 AM: 84.1% on time from 202 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 80.7% on time from 1,115 flights
- 12 PM: 74.4% on time from 177 flights
- 1 PM: 76.5% on time from 142 flights
- 2 PM: 74.0% on time from 178 flights
- 3 PM: 64.8% on time from 826 flights
- 4 PM: 61.5% on time from 188 flights
- 5 PM: 52.2% on time from 253 flights
- 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 63.5% on time from 751 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why RDU → 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 RDU → DFW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on RDU → DFW, at 48.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 86.0% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 61.8%.
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 | 6,195 | 77.0% | 2.11% | -5 min | 8.5% |
| Frontier Airlines | 536 | 75.0% | 2.24% | -7 min | 8.2% |
American Airlines flew 92.0% of the 6,731 flights listed.
American Airlines arrived on time 2.0 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 4.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.3%
- Feb: 85.8%
- Mar: 76.0%
- Apr: 76.2%
- May: 71.4%
- Jun: 68.6%
- Jul: 70.0%
- Aug: 71.3%
- Sep: 80.7%
- Oct: 82.2%
- Nov: 85.4%
- Dec: 81.6%
June is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 17.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 73.4% from 169 flights
- August 2023: 70.9% from 189 flights
- September 2023: 80.7% from 175 flights
- October 2023: 80.9% from 182 flights
- November 2023: 85.5% from 188 flights
- December 2023: 88.1% from 177 flights
- January 2024: 70.2% from 171 flights
- February 2024: 86.6% from 164 flights
- March 2024: 77.5% from 184 flights
- April 2024: 72.6% from 192 flights
- May 2024: 58.9% from 201 flights
- June 2024: 67.9% from 192 flights
- July 2024: 65.8% from 195 flights
- August 2024: 76.8% from 192 flights
- September 2024: 79.9% from 149 flights
- October 2024: 86.9% from 184 flights
- November 2024: 86.5% from 173 flights
- December 2024: 77.8% from 182 flights
- January 2025: 76.7% from 162 flights
- February 2025: 84.0% from 149 flights
- March 2025: 73.8% from 190 flights
- April 2025: 75.4% from 187 flights
- May 2025: 74.9% from 205 flights
- June 2025: 67.0% from 199 flights
- July 2025: 66.7% from 206 flights
- August 2025: 65.7% from 190 flights
- September 2025: 81.5% from 179 flights
- October 2025: 79.1% from 214 flights
- November 2025: 84.3% from 202 flights
- December 2025: 79.3% from 209 flights
- January 2026: 82.4% from 180 flights
- February 2026: 86.6% from 146 flights
- March 2026: 76.9% from 163 flights
- April 2026: 80.6% from 188 flights
- May 2026: 79.9% from 202 flights
- June 2026: 71.0% from 199 flights
- July 2026: 74.7% from 191 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.4% against 76.8% in the 12 months before — improving by 1.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,820 RDU → 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