Dallas-Fort Worth to Miami

Between Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami, 2.6 million passengers flew nonstop in 2025, on 17 thousand flights of about 1,119 miles and 2.5 hours in the air. The average passenger accounted for about 160 kg of CO2 from the fuel burned, from 130 kg on Frontier Airlines to 168 kg on American Airlines.

160 kgCO2 per passenger, average
1,119 milesabout 2.5 hours in the air
2.6 millionpassengers in 2025
83%of seats filled

CO2 per passenger, airline by airline

Kilograms of CO2 per passenger, one way, 2025. Fuel burned only. Less is better.

Dallas-Fort Worth to Miami by airline, 2025

Airline	Share of passengers	Flights (thousands)	Main aircraft	Seats per flight	Seats filled	kg CO2 per passenger
American Airlines	73%	12.1	Airbus A321, Boeing 737-800	188	84%	168
Spirit Airlines	14%	2.3	Airbus A320-200, Airbus A320neo	194	84%	131
Southwest Airlines	11%	2.1	Boeing 737 MAX 8, Boeing 737-700	164	81%	153
Frontier Airlines	3%	0.4	Airbus A321neo, Airbus A320neo	219	78%	130

What explains the differences

It's number 37 of the 100 busiest city pairs by passengers, and number 34 for the lowest CO2 per mile flown (0.14 kg per passenger-mile, number 1 being the lowest). A typical route of 1,119 miles in this set comes out at about 166 kg, so this one is 3.5% below it.

The flights use more than one pair of airports: DFW to MIA (57%), DFW to FLL (32%), DAL to FLL (6%). The figures here cover all of them.

The airlines on this route differ by 29% per passenger. Frontier Airlines burned 2,285 gallons per flight and 171 passengers on each, and American Airlines 2,720 gallons and 158 passengers. Fuel burned per flight explains about 69% of the gap and the number of passengers on each flight the other 31%. Frontier Airlines flew 78% full here against 84% for American Airlines, flying mostly Airbus A321neo against Airbus A321.

For comparison, the EPA default factor for a flight of this length (0.129 kg per passenger-mile) would give 144 kg. The EPA figure is a national average for flights of that length. The measured figure for this route is 11% higher.

2019 compared with 2025

In 2019 the route carried 2.6 million passengers on 15 thousand flights. In 2025 it carried 2.6 million, up 3%, on 17 thousand flights, up 9%. The average flight had 190 seats then and 187 now, and 87% of them were filled against 83%.

CO2 per passenger was 181 kg in 2019 and 160 kg in 2025, down 11.5%. Fuel burned per flight was down 16.4% (3,064 gallons to 2,563) and passengers per flight were down 5.5% (165 to 156). The distance flown was about the same (1,118 miles then, 1,119 now).

American Airlines led in both years, with 75% of passengers in 2019 and 73% in 2025. Frontier Airlines didn't have 1% of the passengers in 2019 and now carries 3%.

Airline by airline, American Airlines went from 192 kg to 168 kg per passenger (194 seats per flight to 188, main aircraft Boeing 737-800 then and Airbus A321 now); Southwest Airlines went from 161 kg to 153 kg per passenger (158 seats per flight to 164, main aircraft Boeing 737-700 then and Boeing 737 MAX 8 now).

The airports changed too: DFW to MIA handled 52% of the passengers in 2019 and 57% in 2025.

Dallas-Fort Worth to Miami, 2019 and 2025

Measure	2019	2025
Passengers (thousands)	2,557	2,631
Flights (thousands)	15.5	16.9
Seats filled	87%	83%
Gallons of fuel per flight	3,064	2,563
kg CO2 per passenger	181	160

Kilograms of CO2 per passenger on the airlines that flew the route in both years. 2019 figures use that year's filings and estimated aircraft fuel rates, with type-average replacements for missing or outlying filings as described in the methodology. Less is better.

Dallas-Fort Worth to Miami and back: time in the air

Flights from Miami to Dallas-Fort Worth spent 162 minutes in the air on average in 2025, against 139 minutes from Dallas-Fort Worth to Miami: 23 minutes longer, 16% more. That's the westbound direction, into the prevailing west-to-east winds, which at flight levels often blow at well over 50 miles an hour.

At this route's average burn of about 1,023 gallons per flight hour, those extra minutes cost about 387 gallons per flight, which is about 2.5 gallons or 24 kg of CO2 for each passenger on the slower direction. The route figure above averages both directions.

Time in the air by direction, 2025

Direction	Average minutes in the air	Flights
Miami to Dallas-Fort Worth	161.7	8,418
Dallas-Fort Worth to Miami	139.0	8,460

Fly or drive

Driving is about 1,309 miles by road, which we estimate as 1.17 times the straight-line distance. An average car emits about 389 kg of CO2 on the trip, at the EPA figure of 0.297 kg per vehicle-mile. Alone, that's 143% more than the 160 kg for a passenger on the flight.

With 3 people in the car, driving comes out lower per person than the flight (130 kg each, and 97 kg each for four). A larger SUV or pickup (0.394 kg per mile) would emit about 516 kg per vehicle.

CO2 per person, Dallas-Fort Worth to Miami. Driving figures divide one car's emissions between the people in it. See flying vs driving for other trip lengths.

Flights are listed under the airline that operates them, so regional flying appears under the regional. How the CO2 and drive figures are worked out is in the methodology.

Routes with shared cities or nearby CO2 per mile

Airports on this route: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Miami International Airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Dallas Love Field.

Airport and airline references

Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), T-100 traffic and Schedule T-2 fuel filings; US EPA transport emission factors. See the methodology.

See all routes, or how the airlines compare overall on the airline pages.