Route profile
TUS→DFW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Tucson to Dallas–Fort Worth, 813 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 27% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,898 flights. How this is calculated
TUS → DFW arrives on time 80.6% of the time; the return trip, DFW → TUS, arrives on time 70.8% of the time, a 9.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
TUS → DFW spends 26.9 minutes on the ground on an 813-mile trip: 14.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at TUS and 12.7 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 99% of 4,467 comparable routes.
81.9% on time on the best day (Sunday) against 79.1% on the worst (Saturday).
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 TUS to DFW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
TUS to DFW struggles most at 1 PM: 69.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 8.5 points behind the 77.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.8 points.
TUS to DFW holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 81.9% on time to their 74.6%, a 7.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
July is kinder to TUS to DFW than to routes of similar length: 78.3% on time against 68.6%, 9.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.6 points.
American Airlines does better on TUS to DFW than on its routes of similar length: 80.4% on time here, 74.2% there, 6.2 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
TUS to DFW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 69.3% | routes of similar length | 77.8% | −8.5 pts | 618 here, 130,152 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 81.9% | routes of similar length | 74.6% | +7.3 pts | 975 here, 324,908 there |
| Month: July | 78.3% | routes of similar length | 68.6% | +9.7 pts | 654 here, 245,680 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 80.4% | routes of similar length | 74.2% | +6.2 pts | 6,482 here, 354,263 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 813 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 TUS → DFW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
TUS → DFW cancelled 183 of 6,898 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 38. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 85.8% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 44 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 183 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.
157 cancellations, 85.8% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
23 cancellations, 12.6% 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, 1.6% 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.
183 coded cancellations were recorded on TUS → DFW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
45 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 6,898 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DFW after arriving from TUS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.7% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.6% | 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 2.65% of the time and diverts 0.36% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,690 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 6,898 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
TUS → DFW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.1% of the time, against 67.6% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 21.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 90.4% on time from 729 flights
- 6 AM: 89.8% on time from 901 flights
- 7 AM: 89.5% on time from 703 flights
- 8 AM: 82.1% on time from 267 flights
- 9 AM: 81.7% on time from 903 flights
- 10 AM: 83.6% on time from 380 flights
- 11 AM: 79.4% on time from 466 flights
- 12 PM: 78.9% on time from 508 flights
- 1 PM: 69.3% on time from 638 flights
- 2 PM: 77.0% on time from 293 flights
- 3 PM: 64.1% on time from 686 flights
- 4 PM: 71.1% on time from 318 flights
- 5 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why TUS → 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 TUS → DFW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on TUS → DFW, at 45.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.1% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 67.6%.
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 | 6,686 | 80.4% | 2.68% | -6 min | 8.0% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
AA2193 (5:00 AM) arrived on time 89.7% of the time, 23.0 points more often than AA584 (3:40 PM) at 66.7%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Sunday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 2.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.1%
- Feb: 88.5%
- Mar: 81.0%
- Apr: 80.3%
- May: 73.0%
- Jun: 71.8%
- Jul: 78.3%
- Aug: 79.2%
- Sep: 84.5%
- Oct: 84.8%
- Nov: 83.2%
- Dec: 80.2%
June is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 16.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 83.1% from 179 flights
- August 2023: 85.7% from 169 flights
- September 2023: 87.0% from 195 flights
- October 2023: 87.8% from 184 flights
- November 2023: 89.0% from 173 flights
- December 2023: 85.2% from 182 flights
- January 2024: 73.8% from 184 flights
- February 2024: 87.4% from 174 flights
- March 2024: 80.0% from 217 flights
- April 2024: 79.3% from 183 flights
- May 2024: 67.3% from 187 flights
- June 2024: 73.6% from 165 flights
- July 2024: 75.7% from 178 flights
- August 2024: 76.5% from 180 flights
- September 2024: 87.4% from 206 flights
- October 2024: 86.5% from 215 flights
- November 2024: 82.9% from 204 flights
- December 2024: 74.0% from 214 flights
- January 2025: 87.7% from 217 flights
- February 2025: 88.7% from 196 flights
- March 2025: 80.2% from 215 flights
- April 2025: 75.2% from 175 flights
- May 2025: 74.3% from 182 flights
- June 2025: 71.4% from 176 flights
- July 2025: 73.5% from 159 flights
- August 2025: 75.0% from 155 flights
- September 2025: 78.2% from 178 flights
- October 2025: 79.5% from 173 flights
- November 2025: 78.8% from 224 flights
- December 2025: 81.9% from 217 flights
- January 2026: 81.1% from 192 flights
- February 2026: 89.6% from 174 flights
- March 2026: 83.0% from 193 flights
- April 2026: 86.2% from 179 flights
- May 2026: 77.1% from 186 flights
- June 2026: 70.5% from 166 flights
- July 2026: 80.3% from 152 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.2% against 80.3% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,898 TUS → 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