Route profile
SLC→DAL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Salt Lake City to Dallas, 999 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 68% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,153 flights. How this is calculated
SLC → DAL arrives on time 78.0% of the time; the return trip, DAL → SLC, arrives on time 75.9% of the time, a 2.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SLC → DAL spends 20.7 minutes on the ground on a 999-mile trip: 15.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SLC and 5.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at DAL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 97% of 5,368 comparable routes.
78.1% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 77.9% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
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 SLC to DAL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SLC to DAL struggles most at 5 PM: 51.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 15.7 points behind the 67.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 18.2 points.
SLC to DAL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 AM: 96.3% arrive on time, 4.8 points ahead of the 91.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4.1 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on SLC to DAL than on its routes of similar length: 78.0% on time here, 75.6% there, 2.4 points apart.
SLC to DAL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 51.6% | routes of similar length | 67.3% | −15.7 pts | 155 here, 184,019 there |
| Hour: 5 AM departures | 96.3% | routes of similar length | 91.5% | +4.8 pts | 404 here, 109,821 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 78.0% | routes of similar length | 75.6% | +2.4 pts | 2,129 here, 715,372 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 999 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
36 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 2,153 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DAL after arriving from SLC.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.4% | 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 0.60% of the time and diverts 0.51% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,129 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 36 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,153 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SLC → DAL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.6% of the time, against 63.6% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 30.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 96.3% on time from 406 flights
- 6 AM: 91.8% on time from 313 flights
- 7 AM: 90.7% on time from 163 flights
- 8 AM to 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 70.8% on time from 246 flights
- 4 PM: 63.9% on time from 427 flights
- 5 PM: 51.6% on time from 157 flights
- 6 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SLC → DAL runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s 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 SLC → DAL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SLC → DAL, at 52.6%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.6% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 63.6%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 2,153 | 78.0% | 0.60% | -4 min | 5.7% |
Other ways to fly Salt Lake City 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SLC→DFW Salt Lake City to Dallas–Fort Worth | 12,033 | 77.9% | 1.78% | -7 min | 58 |
| SLC→DAL this route Salt Lake City to Dallas | 2,153 | 78.0% | 0.60% | -4 min | 72 |
SLC → DAL is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 78.0% on time, against 77.9% for SLC → DFW.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 9.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.9%
- Feb: 82.9%
- Mar: 78.7%
- Apr: 81.3%
- May: 73.4%
- Jun: 72.5%
- Jul: 70.1%
- Aug: 79.6%
- Sep: 82.7%
- Oct: 79.7%
- Nov: 79.8%
- Dec: 77.5%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 12.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.1% against 77.9% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,153 SLC → 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