Carrier performance at one airport
DL→DCA
Delta Air Lines at Ronald Reagan Washington National
- Departures
- 9,579
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 9
- Rank here
- #2 of 10
Delta Air Lines at Washington lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 9,579 flights, of which Frontier Airlines flew 983 at 78.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 6 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
77.9%
9,319 completed departures
Avg delay
88 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.47%
At DCA, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at DCA
These figures cover 9,579 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.0% 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 (this page) | 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 | 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 Delta Air Lines flies from DCA
Delta Air Lines operates 9 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 | 3,850 | 79.2% | 88 min | 2.55% | B |
| DCA to DTW · Detroit | 1,741 | 78.3% | 84 min | 2.93% | B |
| DCA to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,701 | 78.9% | 94 min | 1.88% | B |
| DCA to MCO · Orlando | 710 | 77.8% | 86 min | 3.66% | B− |
| DCA to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 364 | 67.2% | 88 min | 2.75% | C |
| DCA to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 364 | 72.8% | 63 min | 1.10% | C |
| DCA to MIA · Miamithin sample | 363 | 70.9% | 75 min | 0.83% | C+ |
| DCA to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 362 | 77.3% | 116 min | 2.49% | B |
| DCA to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 116 | 89.3% | 131 min | 3.45% | A− |
Flight by flight
Delta Air Lines flight numbers from DCA
14 Delta Air Lines flight numbers leaving DCA flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
- DL 330to ATL 06:5993.1%
- DL 343to ATL 07:5985.7%
- DL 380to ATL 12:2077.2%
- DL 410to ATL 06:0094.1%
- DL 455to ATL 09:0083.3%
- DL 926to ATL 10:1086.5%
- DL 1454to DTW 17:3062.5%
- DL 1558to DTW 09:3984.5%
- DL 2869to DTW 06:0092.8%
- DL 1003to MCO 06:5983.7%
- DL 2576to MIA 14:0069.3%
- DL 1193to MSP 06:0587.4%
- DL 1493to MSP 07:4581.8%
- DL 820to SLC 17:1072.8%
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 21 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,139 flights89.5%
- 8am–11am1,474 flights84.7%
- 11am–2pm1,467 flights77.9%
- 2pm–5pm1,867 flights72.1%
- 5pm–8pm2,056 flights68.9%
- 8pm–5am576 flights69.3%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.5% of the time, against 68.9% for the evening window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 2,139 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 65.8% 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. August was the busiest month here, with 846 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 40%Carrier
- 35%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
35% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 180,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 14 to one. The split is drawn from 180,003 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.47% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.24%.
9.0% 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.
The sample behind these figures is 9,579 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 65.8%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 9,319 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at DCA
How often is Delta Air Lines at DCA delayed?
Roughly one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 22.1% of the 9,579 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 Delta Air Lines 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 Delta Air Lines at DCA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.9%, 21 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 65.8% 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.