Route profile
SAN→DAL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Diego to Dallas, 1,182 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 40% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,746 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SAN → DAL arrives on time 73.4% of the time; the return trip, DAL → SAN, arrives on time 73.6% of the time.
SAN → DAL spends 22.7 minutes on the ground on a 1,182-mile trip: 17.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SAN and 5.5 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 97% of 4,467 comparable routes.
82.6% on time on a typical Saturday, against 65.9% 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 SAN to DAL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SAN to DAL struggles most at 4 PM: 54.0% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 14.5 points behind the 68.5% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 16.7 points.
Sunday is the day SAN to DAL slips furthest against routes of similar length, 65.9% on time where they average 73.4%, 7.5 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 8.9 points.
SAN to DAL holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 82.6% on time to their 77.2%, a 5.4 points lead.
In October, SAN to DAL runs 8.4 points below routes of similar length, 74.1% on time to 82.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 8.9 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on SAN to DAL arrive on time 73.4% of the time, 2.3 points below the 75.7% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 4 points.
SAN to DAL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 54.0% | routes of similar length | 68.5% | −14.5 pts | 415 here, 122,144 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 65.9% | routes of similar length | 73.4% | −7.5 pts | 657 here, 315,047 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 82.6% | routes of similar length | 77.2% | +5.4 pts | 506 here, 285,973 there |
| Month: October | 74.1% | routes of similar length | 82.5% | −8.4 pts | 386 here, 173,876 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 73.4% | routes of similar length | 75.7% | −2.3 pts | 4,659 here, 458,765 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 1,182 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 SAN → DAL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SAN → DAL cancelled 53 of 4,746 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 90. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 75.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 119 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 53 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.
40 cancellations, 75.5% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
8 cancellations, 15.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
5 cancellations, 9.4% 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.
53 coded cancellations were recorded on SAN → DAL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
45 min late
against a median of 1 min early
Percentiles over 4,746 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DAL after arriving from SAN.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 48% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 26% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | High risk |
| 90 min | 6.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.8% | 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 1.12% of the time and diverts 0.72% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,659 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 45 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,746 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SAN → DAL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.2% of the time, against 61.1% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 28.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 92.3% on time from 687 flights
- 7 AM: 90.0% on time from 317 flights
- 8 AM: 83.5% on time from 413 flights
- 9 AM: 78.1% on time from 266 flights
- 10 AM: 79.8% on time from 331 flights
- 11 AM: 70.6% on time from 162 flights
- 12 PM: 73.7% on time from 260 flights
- 1 PM: 66.4% on time from 242 flights
- 2 PM: 63.4% on time from 297 flights
- 3 PM: 70.2% on time from 368 flights
- 4 PM: 54.0% on time from 421 flights
- 5 PM: 62.9% on time from 425 flights
- 6 PM: 61.1% on time from 557 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SAN → DAL 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 SAN → DAL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SAN → DAL, at 53.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.2% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 61.1%.
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 | 4,746 | 73.4% | 1.12% | -1 min | 7.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 16.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 79.4%
- Feb: 81.3%
- Mar: 69.4%
- Apr: 73.0%
- May: 69.1%
- Jun: 68.9%
- Jul: 69.4%
- Aug: 72.5%
- Sep: 79.5%
- Oct: 74.1%
- Nov: 75.6%
- Dec: 72.4%
June is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 12.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (117)
- August 2023: 76.1% from 122 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (115)
- October 2023: 76.5% from 120 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (116)
- December 2023: 88.4% from 121 flights
- January 2024: 77.6% from 120 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- March 2024: 70.7% from 123 flights
- April 2024: 78.0% from 133 flights
- May 2024: 70.4% from 142 flights
- June 2024: 68.3% from 127 flights
- July 2024: 74.6% from 130 flights
- August 2024: 70.2% from 121 flights
- September 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- October 2024: 68.5% from 131 flights
- November 2024: 78.5% from 134 flights
- December 2024: 59.4% from 137 flights
- January 2025: 86.0% from 127 flights
- February 2025: 83.5% from 121 flights
- March 2025: 78.8% from 137 flights
- April 2025: 72.5% from 135 flights
- May 2025: 78.7% from 141 flights
- June 2025: 80.9% from 137 flights
- July 2025: 73.5% from 141 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- October 2025: 77.4% from 140 flights
- November 2025: 66.7% from 132 flights
- December 2025: 70.8% from 137 flights
- January 2026: 74.1% from 123 flights
- February 2026: 72.5% from 122 flights
- March 2026: 58.5% from 138 flights
- April 2026: 68.2% from 130 flights
- May 2026: 57.9% from 135 flights
- June 2026: 57.5% from 136 flights
- July 2026: 62.9% from 143 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 68.1% against 75.8% in the 12 months before — declining by 7.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,746 SAN → 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