Tommy Obenchain
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Dallas' Delayed Airlines

Dallas' Delayed Airlines

Why my hometown carriers are statistically late👇🏼

Tommy Obenchain
July 10, 2025

Friends,

It’s been a rough month for the two major airlines based in Dallas/Fort Worth.

According to the latest Department of Transportation data, American Airlines and Southwest landed at the bottom of the national rankings for on-time performance. For better or worse, both carriers are household names in North Texas — semi-foundational to the business and cultural landscape — but their numbers tell a less-than-proud story.

American operates their largest hub at DFW and posted an on-time performance of just 69.69% in June — worst among major U.S. carriers.
Southwest, headquartered at Love Field, came in nominally ahead of American with 70.18% of their flights arriving on-time.

Meanwhile, Spirit Airlines quietly outperformed both, and Air Canada — once notorious for delays — led all North American carriers in punctuality for the second consecutive month. To be sure, numbers do not always tell the full story: I’m still on the fence as to whether I’d prefer an on-time Spirit flight to a delayed American flight.

Anyways.

What's driving the delays?

A few factors are worth considering:

Weather: Summer storms are always a material consideration in North America. But all carriers contend with weather, and the gap between American/Southwest and competitors like Delta suggests there's more at play than a string of bad weather.
Operational Complexity: American’s mega-hub at DFW means any disruption — weather or otherwise — can cascade across the system. Volume creates vulnerability.
Reputation Recovery: Southwest is still managing the reputational and structural fallout from its December 2022 operational collapse. While the airline has made successful investments in tech and staffing, the data shows that reliability is still a work in progress.

Why it matters

Delayed flights aren't just an inconvenience — they erode trust. And for brands like American and Southwest, that trust matters far beyond the home-field advantage they both enjoy in North Texas.

Operational disruptions are a reality in the airline industry, and how you recover matters, too. For both carriers, there’s a bigger opportunity here: as Continental demonstrated in the late 90s , becoming known as an “on-time airline” can be a massive win for passengers, employees, and shareholders alike.

Many — especially the leadership at these airlines — will shrug and say, “Don’t judge our summertime stats.” But the performance of Delta and United makes clear: this isn’t just seasonal noise. It’s a reflection of American and Southwest’s underperformance at large.

The good news? With the right leadership and vision, this can readily change.

What I’m watching now:

While Southwest’s renewed focus on operational reliability has been promising — can they stay the course? With all the other changes they are implementing, reliability needs to be their reality.
Can American claw back into the 80%+ on-time range that Delta consistently hits? They’re not even close to that zone.

If either carrier can do it, they will win big. I’m rooting for them.

Fly well.