Carrier performance at one airport
AA→DCA
American Airlines at Ronald Reagan Washington National
- Departures
- 27,638
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #6 of 10
American Airlines at Washington sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 27,638 flights, of which Frontier Airlines flew 983 at 78.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs 3 points ahead of the 72.1% weighted average across all carriers at DCA. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
74.7%
26,811 completed departures
Avg delay
84 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.57%
At DCA, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at DCA
These figures cover 28,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at DCA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Frontier Airlines arrives on time 78.1% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 65.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 40,071 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier Airlines | 983 | 78.1% | 81 min | 1.02% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 9,579 | 77.9% | 88 min | 2.47% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,887 | 77.6% | 84 min | 1.63% | B |
| Envoy Air | 4,875 | 76.9% | 69 min | 3.20% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 27,158 | 75.0% | 69 min | 4.51% | B− |
| American Airlines (this page) | 27,638 | 74.7% | 84 min | 2.57% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 16,026 | 72.7% | 63 min | 2.23% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,182 | 71.9% | 56 min | 1.01% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 6,726 | 67.6% | 83 min | 4.07% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 40,071 | 65.9% | 82 min | 6.39% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.4% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where American Airlines flies from DCA
American Airlines operates 25 routes out of DCA with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DCA to MIA · Miami | 3,555 | 77.7% | 76 min | 2.28% | B |
| DCA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,304 | 78.8% | 88 min | 2.85% | B |
| DCA to CLT · Charlotte | 2,443 | 79.8% | 124 min | 3.19% | B− |
| DCA to ORD · Chicago | 2,271 | 72.9% | 89 min | 3.61% | C− |
| DCA to BOS · Boston | 2,233 | 65.5% | 84 min | 2.96% | C |
| DCA to MCO · Orlando | 1,815 | 77.6% | 90 min | 2.42% | B |
| DCA to TPA · Tampa | 1,524 | 71.3% | 84 min | 2.76% | C |
| DCA to PHX · Phoenix | 1,086 | 82.5% | 108 min | 1.47% | B |
| DCA to JAX · Jacksonville | 926 | 72.7% | 71 min | 2.16% | C |
| DCA to PBI · West Palm Beach | 920 | 76.8% | 76 min | 1.85% | B |
| DCA to RSW · Fort Myers | 835 | 75.9% | 80 min | 2.51% | B |
| DCA to LAX · Los Angeles | 728 | 77.3% | 74 min | 1.24% | B |
| DCA to PWM · Portland | 653 | 69.3% | 67 min | 1.84% | C |
| DCA to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 575 | 72.1% | 67 min | 1.91% | C |
| DCA to CHS · Charleston | 536 | 64.2% | 80 min | 2.43% | D |
| DCA to MSY · New Orleans | 479 | 73.5% | 85 min | 2.71% | C |
| DCA to PVD · Providence | 450 | 77.0% | 62 min | 3.33% | B− |
| DCA to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 364 | 88.8% | 72 min | 1.37% | A |
| DCA to SAT · San Antoniothin sample | 350 | 58.0% | 88 min | 1.71% | D |
| DCA to SRQ · Sarasotathin sample | 317 | 78.7% | 72 min | 0.95% | B+ |
| DCA to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 290 | 63.8% | 82 min | 4.83% | D− |
| DCA to BDL · Hartfordthin sample | 286 | 60.4% | 73 min | 5.24% | D− |
| DCA to SYR · Syracusethin sample | 194 | 72.1% | 80 min | 2.06% | C |
| DCA to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 180 | 60.1% | 90 min | 3.89% | D− |
| DCA to VPS · Valparaisothin sample | 175 | 70.3% | 54 min | 1.14% | C |
Flight by flight
American Airlines flight numbers from DCA
7 American Airlines flight numbers leaving DCA flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 30 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am4,732 flights91.5%
- 8am–11am7,024 flights81.1%
- 11am–2pm3,527 flights75.5%
- 2pm–5pm4,559 flights67.6%
- 5pm–8pm5,064 flights61.3%
- 8pm–5am2,732 flights64.3%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.3% on time, against 91.5% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 7,024 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 70.1% on time, 10 points below April, the best at 79.7%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. September was the busiest month here, with 2,726 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%Carrier
- 17%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
52% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 573,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. The split is drawn from 572,609 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.57%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
10.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
27,638 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
Put together: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 61.3% on time against 91.5% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 30 points is the largest single thing you control here. Frontier Airlines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 26,811 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at DCA
How often is American Airlines at DCA delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 25.3% of the 27,638 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at DCA?
Frontier Airlines leads at 78.1% on time across 983 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 65.9%, a gap of 12 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on American Airlines at DCA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 61.3%, 30 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on American Airlines at DCA?
July is the weakest month at 70.1% on time, compared with 79.7% in April. Across the year that is 10 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) all carriers
- DCA to MIA route record77.7%
- DCA to DFW route record78.8%
- DCA to CLT route record79.8%
- DCA to ORD route record72.9%
- Do airlines run better at their own hubs?
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.