Route profile
TPA→DAL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Tampa to Dallas, 917 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 38% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,153 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
TPA → DAL arrives on time 76.1% of the time; the return trip, DAL → TPA, arrives on time 72.2% of the time, a 3.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
TPA → DAL spends 19.0 minutes on the ground on a 917-mile trip: 13.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at TPA and 5.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at DAL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
On-time performance swings unusually widely by time of day here, wider than 97% of 4,023 comparable routes.
93.6% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 58.8% for 6–9 PM.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where TPA to DAL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
TPA to DAL struggles most at 8 PM: 56.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10.7 points behind the 66.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.3 points.
TPA to DAL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 AM: 95.2% arrive on time, 6.7 points ahead of the 88.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
TPA to DAL holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 80.8% on time to their 75.9%, a 4.9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.6 points.
In September, TPA to DAL runs 5.6 points below routes of similar length, 76.6% on time to 82.2%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.8 points.
August is kinder to TPA to DAL than to routes of similar length: 79.9% on time against 74.8%, 5.1 points better.
TPA to DAL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 56.1% | routes of similar length | 66.8% | −10.7 pts | 344 here, 139,130 there |
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 95.2% | routes of similar length | 88.5% | +6.7 pts | 147 here, 224,394 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 80.8% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | +4.9 pts | 609 here, 422,784 there |
| Month: September | 76.6% | routes of similar length | 82.2% | −5.6 pts | 286 here, 217,743 there |
| Month: August | 79.9% | routes of similar length | 74.8% | +5.1 pts | 309 here, 229,016 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 917 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 TPA → DAL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
TPA → DAL cancelled 69 of 4,153 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 60. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 72.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 83 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 69 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.
50 cancellations, 72.5% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
12 cancellations, 17.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
7 cancellations, 10.1% 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.
69 coded cancellations were recorded on TPA → DAL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
46 min late
against a median of 2 min early
Percentiles over 4,153 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DAL after arriving from TPA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 44% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 23% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.3% | 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 1.66% of the time and diverts 0.46% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,065 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 46 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,153 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
TPA → DAL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.6% of the time, against 58.8% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 34.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 97.6% on time from 339 flights
- 6 AM: 91.3% on time from 511 flights
- 7 AM: 95.2% on time from 148 flights
- 8 AM: 91.6% on time from 209 flights
- 9 AM: 83.7% on time from 168 flights
- 10 AM: 81.3% on time from 308 flights
- 11 AM: 85.3% on time from 134 flights
- 12 PM: 74.9% on time from 168 flights
- 1 PM: 78.2% on time from 272 flights
- 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 69.4% on time from 214 flights
- 4 PM: 65.7% on time from 362 flights
- 5 PM: 71.7% on time from 183 flights
- 6 PM: 61.5% on time from 213 flights
- 7 PM: 60.2% on time from 272 flights
- 8 PM: 56.1% on time from 349 flights
- 9 PM: 59.0% on time from 230 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why TPA → 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 TPA → DAL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on TPA → DAL, at 52.5%: 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 6–9 PM departures 58.8%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 4,153 | 76.1% | 1.66% | -2 min | 7.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 11.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.2%
- Feb: 82.3%
- Mar: 71.7%
- Apr: 77.4%
- May: 70.3%
- Jun: 72.0%
- Jul: 68.4%
- Aug: 79.9%
- Sep: 76.6%
- Oct: 83.4%
- Nov: 84.0%
- Dec: 76.5%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 15.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 69.5% from 129 flights
- August 2023: 82.1% from 126 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (115)
- October 2023: 79.5% from 124 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (119)
- December 2023: 77.0% from 126 flights
- January 2024: 71.4% from 124 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- March 2024: 59.0% from 124 flights
- April 2024: too few flights to score (110)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- June 2024: 70.2% from 123 flights
- July 2024: 59.5% from 126 flights
- August 2024: too few flights to score (98)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (89)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (105)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (110)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (100)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (97)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (105)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (108)
- June 2025: 75.8% from 121 flights
- July 2025: 76.2% from 127 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (97)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (107)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (110)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (99)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (105)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (119)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (110)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (114)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (110)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (116)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.5% against 81.0% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,153 TPA → 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