DSM to DFW flight delays
Des Moines, IA (DSM) Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (DFW) · 624 miles
1,436 flights · January 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
72.53%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
4.11%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
100 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
28 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Which airline you fly changes the odds here. Envoy Air arrived on time 16.1 points more often than American Airlines over the same period on the same route — same airports, same weather, same air traffic control. A gap that survives all of that is about how the two airlines are run.
Cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth pricing here: 4.11% of scheduled flights never operated. A late flight still gets you there. A cancelled one leaves you rebooking, and on a route with few daily departures that can mean losing a day.
The season swings this route hard. In May it ran 21.4 points more punctual than in July — a difference bigger than the one between the best and worst airlines on most routes. If the date is flexible, it is worth more than the carrier.
The route has been getting better. The later months in the record run 8.3 points more punctual than the earlier ones, which usually means a schedule that was too tight has been given more room.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over January 2025 – August 2026, Envoy Air arrived on time most often on DSM to DFW. American Airlines was late most often. Flights ran closest to schedule in May and worst in July.
Every airline on DSM to DFW
Ranked by how many flights each one operated. A carrier with fewer than 100 flights in the period is listed but not graded.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 949 | 67.86% | 4.95% | 105 min | F |
| Envoy Air | 332 | 84% | 1.81% | 74 min | B |
| PSA Airlines | 145 | 75.36% | 4.14% | 103 min | D |
| SkyWest Airlines | 10 | 80% | 0% | 78 min | — |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
Other routes from Des Moines
Common questions
Are flights from Des Moines to Dallas/Fort Worth usually delayed?
72.53% of flights on the DSM to DFW route arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, so roughly 3 in every ten arrived late. That is worse than the average route in this record.
Which airline is most on time from Des Moines to Dallas/Fort Worth?
Envoy Air, at 84% on time across 332 flights. The least punctual on the route was American Airlines at 67.86%.
How often are DSM to DFW flights cancelled?
4.11% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 41 in every thousand. That is high enough that cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth planning around.
What is the best month to fly Des Moines to Dallas/Fort Worth?
May, when 82.1% of flights arrived on time. The worst was July at 60.7%.
When DSM to DFW flights are late, how late are they?
About 100 minutes on average across the flights that arrived more than 15 minutes behind schedule.
What these figures do and do not tell you
Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on DSM to DFW during January 2025 – August 2026, as reported by the airlines to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. "On time" is the federal definition: arriving at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
A route's record is a description of the past, not a forecast. Weather, air traffic control and the aircraft's earlier flights that day drive most delays, and none of them are predictable from a historical rate. What the record does tell you is whether this route runs late more often than others, and which carrier on it has the better history — which is the part you can actually act on when you book.
Cancellations are counted separately from delays because they are a different problem for a traveller: a late flight still gets you there. How the grade is calculated →