Route profile
RSW→DFW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Fort Myers to Dallas–Fort Worth, 1,017 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 6% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,201 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
RSW → DFW arrives on time 73.5% of the time; the return trip, DFW → RSW, arrives on time 66.2% of the time, a 7.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
RSW → DFW spends 30.0 minutes on the ground on a 1,017-mile trip: 14.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at RSW and 15.0 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 96% of 4,467 comparable routes.
75.4% on time on the best day (Tuesday) against 71.4% on the worst (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 RSW to DFW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
RSW to DFW struggles most at 4 PM: 56.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 11 points behind the 67.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.8 points.
Wednesday is the day RSW to DFW slips furthest against routes of similar length, 72.4% on time where they average 79.7%, 7.3 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
In May, RSW to DFW runs 10.4 points below routes of similar length, 63.9% on time to 74.3%. Against all other routes the gap is 11.4 points.
RSW to DFW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 56.9% | routes of similar length | 67.9% | −11.0 pts | 130 here, 148,428 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 72.4% | routes of similar length | 79.7% | −7.3 pts | 557 here, 388,998 there |
| Month: May | 63.9% | routes of similar length | 74.3% | −10.4 pts | 313 here, 236,914 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 1,017 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 RSW → DFW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
RSW → DFW cancelled 122 of 4,201 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 34. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 91.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 38 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 122 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.
111 cancellations, 91.0% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
8 cancellations, 6.6% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
3 cancellations, 2.5% 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.
122 coded cancellations were recorded on RSW → DFW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
66 min late
against a median of 4 min early
RSW → DFW has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 4 min early, but the worst tenth are 70 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 4,201 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DFW after arriving from RSW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 26% | High risk |
| 60 min | 18% | High risk |
| 90 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.9% | 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 2.90% of the time and diverts 0.40% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,062 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 66 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,201 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
RSW → DFW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.4% of the time, against 60.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 27.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 91.1% on time from 204 flights
- 7 AM: 87.9% on time from 951 flights
- 8 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 73.8% on time from 155 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 77.5% on time from 474 flights
- 2 PM: 65.2% on time from 371 flights
- 3 PM: 70.4% on time from 529 flights
- 4 PM: 56.9% on time from 137 flights
- 5 PM: 57.7% on time from 311 flights
- 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 60.3% on time from 644 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why RSW → 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 RSW → DFW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on RSW → DFW, at 46.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.4% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 60.6%.
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 | 4,086 | 73.9% | 2.81% | -4 min | 10.9% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1281 American Airlines | 7:00 AM | 1,126 | 88.2% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 4.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 74.6%
- Feb: 81.2%
- Mar: 71.9%
- Apr: 70.6%
- May: 63.9%
- Jun: 65.0%
- Jul: 65.0%
- Aug: 73.6%
- Sep: 83.6%
- Oct: 85.6%
- Nov: 84.2%
- Dec: 75.5%
May is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 21.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (119)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (107)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (76)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (85)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (112)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (109)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- March 2024: 61.1% from 147 flights
- April 2024: 65.3% from 125 flights
- May 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- June 2024: 66.1% from 128 flights
- July 2024: 52.7% from 130 flights
- August 2024: too few flights to score (95)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (68)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (94)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (112)
- March 2025: 70.4% from 174 flights
- April 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- June 2025: 63.7% from 141 flights
- July 2025: 64.2% from 153 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (86)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (68)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (77)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (109)
- December 2025: 73.0% from 122 flights
- January 2026: 79.6% from 128 flights
- February 2026: too few flights to score (111)
- March 2026: 84.2% from 150 flights
- April 2026: 75.8% from 125 flights
- May 2026: 77.1% from 123 flights
- June 2026: 65.2% from 120 flights
- July 2026: 75.0% from 122 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.7% against 72.8% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,201 RSW → 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