Route profile
SEA→DAL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Seattle to Dallas, 1,670 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 41% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,036 flights. How this is calculated
SEA → DAL arrives on time 71.2% of the time; the return trip, DAL → SEA, arrives on time 78.0% of the time, a 6.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SEA → DAL spends 28.9 minutes on the ground on a 1,670-mile trip: 23.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SEA and 5.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at DAL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability on this route has fallen unusually sharply over the past year, a bigger swing than 100% of 5,368 comparable routes.
46.8% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-04 to 2026-07), against 80.9% in the 12 months before (2024-04 to 2025-03), a change of 34.1 points.
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 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SEA to DAL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
Saturday is the day SEA to DAL slips furthest against routes of similar length, 69.0% on time where they average 78.7%, 9.7 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
Alaska Airlines does better on SEA to DAL than on its routes of similar length: 83.3% on time here, 77.4% there, 5.9 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
SEA to DAL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday: Saturday | 69.0% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | −9.7 pts | 168 here, 200,043 there |
| Airline: Alaska Airlines | 83.3% | routes of similar length | 77.4% | +5.9 pts | 689 here, 112,214 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 1,670 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
45 min late
against a median of 1 min late
Percentiles over 1,036 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DAL after arriving from SEA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 51% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 28% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 6.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 2.1% | 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 0.87% of the time and diverts 0.29% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,024 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 1,036 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SEA → DAL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 85.7% of the time, against 46.5% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 39.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 85.3% on time from 453 flights
- 8 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 75.7% on time from 152 flights
- 1 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SEA → 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 SEA → 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 699 | 83.3% | 1.29% | -4 min | 1.7% |
| Southwest Airlines | 337 | 46.3% | 0.00% | 16 min | 15.8% |
Alaska Airlines flew 67.5% of the 1,036 flights listed. Alaska Airlines cancelled 1.29% of its flights here against 0.00% for Southwest Airlines.
Alaska Airlines arrived on time 37.0 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Seattle 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEA→DFW Seattle to Dallas–Fort Worth | 15,630 | 76.3% | 1.63% | -4 min | 60 |
| SEA→DAL this route Seattle to Dallas | 1,036 | 71.2% | 0.87% | 1 min | 62 |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 11.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-04 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 46.8% against 80.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 34.1 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,036 SEA → 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