Carrier performance at one airport
UA→DCA
United Airlines at Ronald Reagan Washington National
- Departures
- 6,887
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 4
- Rank here
- #3 of 10
United Airlines at Washington lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 6,887 flights, of which Frontier Airlines flew 983 at 78.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, United Airlines runs 5 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
77.6%
6,753 completed departures
Avg delay
84 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.63%
At DCA, this carrier only
Rank here
#3
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at DCA
These figures cover 6,887 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.4% 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 (this page) | 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 United Airlines flies from DCA
United Airlines operates 4 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 ORD · Chicago | 3,411 | 73.8% | 87 min | 2.52% | C |
| DCA to IAH · Houston | 2,384 | 83.5% | 85 min | 0.80% | B+ |
| DCA to SFO · San Francisco | 727 | 74.8% | 68 min | 0.69% | C+ |
| DCA to DEN · Denverthin sample | 364 | 78.4% | 87 min | 0.55% | B+ |
Flight by flight
United Airlines flight numbers from DCA
10 United 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 35 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,266 flights89.6%
- 8am–11am1,165 flights88.8%
- 11am–2pm1,352 flights85.1%
- 2pm–5pm1,413 flights72.5%
- 5pm–8pm1,376 flights54.3%
- 8pm–5am315 flights78.5%
Scale runs 45% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 54.3% on time, against 89.6% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 1,413 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
August is the worst month at 69.4% on time, 14 points below February, the best at 83.7%. 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. August was the busiest month here, with 642 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 46%National Airspace System
- 34%Late-arriving aircraft
- 16%Carrier
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
34% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 128,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 127,814 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.63% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.32%.
9.4% 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.
The sample behind these figures is 6,887 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. February runs 83.7% on time and August 69.4%, a swing of 14 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 6,753 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
United Airlines at DCA
How often is United Airlines at DCA delayed?
Roughly 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 22.4% of the 6,887 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 United 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 United Airlines at DCA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.6% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 54.3%, 35 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 August delays on United Airlines at DCA?
August is the weakest month at 69.4% on time, compared with 83.7% in February. Across the year that is 14 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.