DFW falling behind on departure times

More than 4 out of 5 U.S. domestic flights departed on time in November 2022, per the latest Bureau of Transportation Statistics data.

• That's up from last summer, when staff shortages and foul weather combined to muck up the complex, interconnected web that is the air travel system.

The big picture: Airlines performed admirably throughout the fall of 2022, with on-time departure rates at or above 80% between September and November.

Zoom in: DFW was better than the national average in January 2022, with 82% of departures leaving on time. But the airport fell below the national average by the end of the year, to 77%.

Zoom out: Across the cities with Axios Local newsrooms, the Washington, D.C. area's Dulles International Airport had the best on-time performance in November 2022, at 88%.

• Denver — where brutal storms tend to snarl wintertime operations — had the lowest, at 76%.

Yes, but: This dataset doesn't include December's meltdown at Southwest Airlines, which led to thousands of cancellations and delays at that particular carrier.

• Expect those delays to show up in the next data release, where they'll almost assuredly drag down the systemwide numbers.
• "Let me be clear: We messed up," Southwest Airlines' chief operating officer Andrew Watterson said during congressional testimony last week. "In hindsight, we did not have enough winter operational resilience."

Be smart: Since airlines' systems and routes are so interconnected, problems at one airport or in one region tend to cascade across the country.

• Foul weather in, say, Chicago can mean delays in Houston because planes get stuck and can't make their next planned leg.

The bottom line: Generally speaking, on-time performance tends to dip in the summer (due to thunderstorms and the vacation rush) and winter (due to blizzards and holiday crowds), and improve in the spring and fall.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to remove a reference to the number of cities with Axios Local newsrooms.