Los Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth

Between Los Angeles and Dallas-Fort Worth, 4.7 million passengers flew nonstop in 2025, on 31 thousand flights of about 1,222 miles and 2.7 hours in the air. The average passenger accounted for about 171 kg of CO2 from the fuel burned, from 124 kg on Frontier Airlines to 233 kg on Delta Air Lines.

American carries 67% of the passengers between Los Angeles and Dallas-Fort Worth, so the route's 171 kg is mostly American's 173 kg. The challengers came in on price: Spirit now has 6% of passengers and Frontier, which had none in 2019, has 5%, and both are well below American, at 133 and 124 kg.

Delta is the outlier. Its 233 kg is the highest on the route, up from 194 kg in 2019, on flights that average 143 seats and are 77% full, mostly on A319s and A320s.

171 kgCO2 per passenger, average
1,222 milesabout 2.7 hours in the air
4.7 millionpassengers in 2025
84%of seats filled

CO2 per passenger, airline by airline

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

Los Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth by airline, 2025

Airline	Share of passengers	Flights (thousands)	Main aircraft	Seats per flight	Seats filled	kg CO2 per passenger
American Airlines	67%	20.3	Airbus A321, Boeing 737-800	185	85%	173
Southwest Airlines	18%	6.8	Boeing 737-700, Boeing 737 MAX 8	162	80%	175
Spirit Airlines	6%	1.6	Airbus A320neo, Airbus A321	197	89%	133
Frontier Airlines	5%	1.4	Airbus A321neo, Airbus A320neo	220	83%	124
Delta Air Lines	3%	1.4	Airbus A319, Airbus A320-200	143	77%	233

What explains the differences

It's number 8 of the 100 busiest city pairs by passengers, and number 29 for the lowest CO2 per mile flown (0.14 kg per passenger-mile, number 1 being the lowest). A typical route of 1,222 miles in this set comes out at about 179 kg, so this one is 4.6% below it.

The flights use more than one pair of airports: DFW to LAX (44%), DFW to SNA (17%), DFW to ONT (16%). The figures here cover all of them.

The airlines on this route differ by 88% per passenger. Frontier Airlines burned 2,335 gallons per flight and 183 passengers on each, and Delta Air Lines 2,630 gallons and 110 passengers. Fuel burned per flight explains about 19% of the gap and the number of passengers on each flight the other 81%. Frontier Airlines flew 83% full here against 77% for Delta Air Lines, 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 158 kg. The EPA figure is a national average for flights of that length. The measured figure for this route is 8.2% higher.

2019 compared with 2025

In 2019 the route carried 4.9 million passengers on 34 thousand flights. In 2025 it carried 4.7 million, down 3%, on 31 thousand flights, down 6%. The average flight had 162 seats then and 180 now, and 90% of them were filled against 84%.

CO2 per passenger was 177 kg in 2019 and 171 kg in 2025, down 3.8%. Fuel burned per flight was down 0.6% (2,650 gallons to 2,635) and passengers per flight were up 3.4% (146 to 151). The distance flown was about the same (1,225 miles then, 1,222 now).

American Airlines led in both years, with 68% of passengers in 2019 and 67% in 2025. Southwest Airlines gained the most share, 15% to 18%. Frontier Airlines didn't have 1% of the passengers in 2019 and now carries 5%. SkyWest Airlines no longer reaches 1% of passengers, having had 3% in 2019.

Airline by airline, Spirit Airlines went from 158 kg to 133 kg per passenger (200 seats per flight to 197, main aircraft Airbus A321 then and Airbus A320neo now); Delta Air Lines went from 194 kg to 233 kg per passenger (150 seats per flight to 143, main aircraft Airbus A320-200 then and Airbus A319 now).

The airports changed too: DFW to LAX handled 50% of the passengers in 2019 and 44% in 2025.

Los Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth, 2019 and 2025

Measure	2019	2025
Passengers (thousands)	4,894	4,730
Flights (thousands)	33.6	31.4
Seats filled	90%	84%
Gallons of fuel per flight	2,650	2,635
kg CO2 per passenger	177	171

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.

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

Flights from Dallas-Fort Worth to Los Angeles spent 168 minutes in the air on average in 2025, against 151 minutes from Los Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth: 17 minutes longer, 11% 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 991 gallons per flight hour, those extra minutes cost about 281 gallons per flight, which is about 1.9 gallons or 18 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 Los Angeles	168.1	15,750
Los Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth	151.1	15,645

Fly or drive

Driving is about 1,430 miles by road, which we estimate as 1.17 times the straight-line distance. An average car emits about 425 kg of CO2 on the trip, at the EPA figure of 0.297 kg per vehicle-mile. Alone, that's 149% more than the 171 kg for a passenger on the flight.

With 3 people in the car, driving comes out lower per person than the flight (142 kg each, and 106 kg each for four). A larger SUV or pickup (0.394 kg per mile) would emit about 563 kg per vehicle.

CO2 per person, Los Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth. 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.

What to take from it

'Los Angeles' is five airports here. Only 52% of the passengers fly into LAX itself, and 12% leave from Dallas Love Field rather than DFW. The flight from Dallas to Los Angeles takes 17 minutes longer than the one back, 11% more, about 18 kg more per passenger.

Passengers are 3% below 2019 and the figure per passenger is 171 kg against 177 kg then, a small change. At 1,430 road miles the drive is 425 kg alone and 106 kg each with four in the car, 38% below the flight.

Routes with shared cities or nearby CO2 per mile

Airports on this route: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, John Wayne Airport, Ontario International Airport, 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.