Carrier performance at one airport
DL→DCA
Delta Air Lines at Ronald Reagan Washington National
- Departures
- 9,457
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 8
- Rank here
- #2 of 10
Delta Air Lines at Washington lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.4%. Roughly one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 9,457 flights, of which Frontier Airlines flew 983 at 78.7% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 5 points ahead of the 72.8% 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
78.0%
9,198 completed departures
Avg delay
93 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.51%
At DCA, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at DCA
These figures cover 9,457 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at DCA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Frontier Airlines arrives on time 78.7% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 67.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 39,669 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier Airlines | 983 | 78.7% | 80 min | 0.92% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 9,457 | 78.0% | 93 min | 2.51% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,888 | 77.6% | 88 min | 1.52% | B |
| Envoy Air | 4,921 | 77.2% | 73 min | 4.25% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 27,320 | 75.6% | 68 min | 4.56% | B− |
| American Airlines | 27,956 | 74.4% | 85 min | 2.78% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 16,065 | 74.3% | 65 min | 1.66% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,184 | 70.5% | 59 min | 1.14% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 6,695 | 68.8% | 83 min | 2.79% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 39,669 | 67.0% | 80 min | 5.80% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 5.8% 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 Delta Air Lines flies from DCA
Delta Air Lines operates 8 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 ATL · Atlanta | 3,830 | 80.1% | 88 min | 2.87% | B |
| DCA to DTW · Detroit | 1,744 | 78.7% | 91 min | 2.35% | B |
| DCA to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,690 | 79.5% | 107 min | 1.89% | B |
| DCA to MCO · Orlando | 712 | 77.8% | 94 min | 3.65% | B− |
| DCA to SLC · Salt Lake City | 365 | 73.4% | 75 min | 1.10% | C |
| DCA to SEA · Seattle | 365 | 66.2% | 99 min | 2.74% | C |
| DCA to MIA · Miamithin sample | 364 | 66.5% | 80 min | 1.65% | C |
| DCA to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 363 | 74.4% | 110 min | 2.20% | C |
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 23 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,982 flights89.7%
- 8am–11am1,521 flights84.4%
- 11am–2pm1,470 flights81.5%
- 2pm–5pm1,739 flights72.5%
- 5pm–8pm2,159 flights67.2%
- 8pm–5am586 flights70.5%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.7% of the time, against 67.2% for the evening window. That is 23 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 65.1% on time, 22 points below October, the best at 87.4%. 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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 40%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
40% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 187,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 16 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit.
Cancellations run at 2.51%, against 1.80% 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.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 9,457 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. October runs 87.4% on time and July 65.1%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at DCA
How often is Delta Air Lines at DCA delayed?
Roughly one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 22.0% of the 9,457 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Delta Air Lines at DCA?
Frontier Airlines leads at 78.7% on time across 983 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 67.0%, 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 Delta Air Lines at DCA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 67.2%, 23 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 Delta Air Lines at DCA?
July is the weakest month at 65.1% on time, compared with 87.4% in October. Across the year that is 22 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
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.