St. Louis to Dallas/Fort Worth

What the Data Says About STL to DFW

The St. Louis to Dallas/Fort Worth corridor (STL → DFW) covers roughly 550 miles and is served by 23 carriers, based on Bureau of Transportation Statistics reporting. Across 13,077 flights in the dataset, this route posts a 79.2% on-time rate with an average delay of 100.0 minutes when flights run late. Over the most recent 24 months of BTS data, 4,772 flights were recorded on this pairing — 138 cancelled (2.9%) and 9 diverted (0.2%). Those baseline metrics tell you what to expect before you book.

Having 23 carriers on the route matters: more carriers generally means more daily schedule options, competitive pricing, and redundancy when flights are cancelled. With 13,077 total flights analyzed, the 79.2% on-time figure is statistically meaningful rather than a small-sample fluke. The 100.0-minute average delay applies only to flights that actually ran late, so it is not the average wait across all departures — the majority of flights on this route depart on time under the BTS definition of a delay (15+ minutes past schedule).

Looking at recent months, Sep 2024 posted the best performance on this corridor at 85% on-time, while Jan 2024 came in at 62% on-time — a 23-point gap between best and worst recent month. For travelers evaluating the STL to DFW route, the combination of a 79.2% on-time rate, 100.0-minute average delay, 2.9% recent cancellation rate, and 23 available carriers is the concrete summary of what BTS data shows about reliability on this pairing.