Dallas-Fort Worth to San Francisco

Between Dallas-Fort Worth and San Francisco, 2.0 million passengers flew nonstop in 2025, on 13 thousand flights of about 1,458 miles and 3.1 hours in the air. The average passenger accounted for about 193 kg of CO2 from the fuel burned, from 149 kg on Frontier Airlines to 211 kg on United Airlines.

193 kgCO2 per passenger, average
1,458 milesabout 3.1 hours in the air
2.0 millionpassengers in 2025
86%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 San Francisco by airline, 2025

Airline	Share of passengers	Flights (thousands)	Main aircraft	Seats per flight	Seats filled	kg CO2 per passenger
American Airlines	67%	8.2	Airbus A321, Boeing 737-800	184	88%	195
Southwest Airlines	16%	2.2	Boeing 737 MAX 8, Boeing 737-800	169	82%	185
United Airlines	10%	1.5	Airbus A319, Boeing 737 MAX 9	155	85%	211
Frontier Airlines	4%	0.4	Airbus A321neo, Airbus A320neo	216	84%	149
Spirit Airlines	3%	0.3	Airbus A320-200, Airbus A321neo	197	82%	166

What explains the differences

It's number 72 of the 100 busiest city pairs by passengers, and number 18 for the lowest CO2 per mile flown (0.13 kg per passenger-mile, number 1 being the lowest). A typical route of 1,458 miles in this set comes out at about 208 kg, so this one is 7.2% below it.

The flights use more than one pair of airports: DFW to SFO (65%), DFW to SJC (19%), DAL to OAK (8%). The figures here cover all of them.

The airlines on this route differ by 42% per passenger. Frontier Airlines burned 2,781 gallons per flight and 182 passengers on each, and United Airlines 2,863 gallons and 132 passengers. Fuel burned per flight explains about 8% of the gap and the number of passengers on each flight the other 92%. Frontier Airlines flew 84% full here against 85% for United Airlines, flying mostly Airbus A321neo against Airbus A319.

For comparison, the EPA default factor for a flight of this length (0.129 kg per passenger-mile) would give 188 kg. The EPA figure is a national average for flights of that length. The measured figure for this route is 2.5% higher.

2019 compared with 2025

In 2019 the route carried 2.3 million passengers on 19 thousand flights. In 2025 it carried 2.0 million, down 16%, on 13 thousand flights, down 32%. The average flight had 146 seats then and 179 now, and 85% of them were filled against 86%.

CO2 per passenger was 227 kg in 2019 and 193 kg in 2025, down 14.9%. Fuel burned per flight was up 5.4% (2,899 gallons to 3,056) and passengers per flight were up 23.8% (125 to 155). The distance flown was about the same (1,460 miles then, 1,458 now).

American Airlines led in both years, with 61% of passengers in 2019 and 67% in 2025. Southwest Airlines lost the most, 21% to 16%. Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines didn't have 1% of the passengers in 2019 and now together carry 6%. SkyWest Airlines no longer reaches 1% of passengers, having had 12% in 2019.

Airline by airline, United Airlines went from 250 kg to 211 kg per passenger (145 seats per flight to 155, main aircraft Airbus A319 in both years); American Airlines went from 210 kg to 195 kg per passenger (175 seats per flight to 184, main aircraft Airbus A321 in both years).

The airports changed too: DFW to SFO handled 53% of the passengers in 2019 and 65% in 2025.

Dallas-Fort Worth to San Francisco, 2019 and 2025

Measure	2019	2025
Passengers (thousands)	2,340	1,961
Flights (thousands)	18.8	12.7
Seats filled	85%	86%
Gallons of fuel per flight	2,899	3,056
kg CO2 per passenger	227	193

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 San Francisco and back: time in the air

Flights from Dallas-Fort Worth to San Francisco spent 198 minutes in the air on average in 2025, against 177 minutes from San Francisco to Dallas-Fort Worth: 21 minutes longer, 12% 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 979 gallons per flight hour, those extra minutes cost about 334 gallons per flight, which is about 2.2 gallons or 21 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
Dallas-Fort Worth to San Francisco	197.6	6,362
San Francisco to Dallas-Fort Worth	177.1	6,327

Fly or drive

Driving is about 1,706 miles by road, which we estimate as 1.17 times the straight-line distance. An average car emits about 507 kg of CO2 on the trip, at the EPA figure of 0.297 kg per vehicle-mile. Alone, that's 163% more than the 193 kg for a passenger on the flight.

With 3 people in the car, driving comes out lower per person than the flight (169 kg each, and 127 kg each for four). A larger SUV or pickup (0.394 kg per mile) would emit about 672 kg per vehicle.

CO2 per person, Dallas-Fort Worth to San Francisco. 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, San Francisco International Airport, San Jose International Airport, Dallas Love Field, Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport.

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.