Airport month record
DCAJUL
Ronald Reagan Washington National in July 2025
- Departures
- 12,192
- Month
- July 2025
- National, same month
- 71.1%
- Carriers
- 10
Historical statistics for July 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s July. For today’s conditions at DCA, see live FAA status.
DCA in July carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 9.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 2.5% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about two flights in three arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 12,192 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 2,203 at 75.2% on time.
Republic Airways is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 75.2% on time across 2,203 flights.
Key figures
On time
67.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 10,979 completed departures
Avg delay
103 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
9.51%
Nationally in July: 2.45%
Whole year
73.3%
DCA across all twelve months
These figures cover 12,192 departures from Ronald Reagan Washington National in July 2025. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.
Against the year
July next to DCA's other months
Against DCA's own year, July ran 6 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 73.3%, which makes it number eleven of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where July stands out: 9.51% of scheduled departures were called off, 2.6 times the airport's rate across the year.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 (this page) | 12,192 | 67.0% | 103 min | 9.51% | C− |
| August 2025 | 12,098 | 76.8% | 74 min | 2.12% | B |
| September 2025 | 11,822 | 77.9% | 66 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| October 2025 | 12,273 | 76.9% | 61 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| November 2025 | 11,586 | 72.7% | 73 min | 3.04% | C− |
| December 2025 | 11,308 | 66.8% | 73 min | 2.28% | C |
| January 2026 | 11,858 | 75.1% | 77 min | 9.43% | B− |
| February 2026 | 10,996 | 71.1% | 71 min | 4.27% | C− |
| March 2026 | 12,204 | 70.2% | 85 min | 4.98% | C− |
| April 2026 | 11,802 | 77.0% | 76 min | 0.80% | B+ |
| May 2026 | 12,158 | 74.8% | 70 min | 1.45% | C |
| June 2026 | 11,953 | 71.6% | 88 min | 4.94% | C− |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave DCA in July
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 47 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,458 flights89.6%
- 8am–11am2,628 flights83.9%
- 11am–2pm2,046 flights72.1%
- 2pm–5pm2,101 flights59.3%
- 5pm–8pm2,158 flights42.5%
- 8pm–5am1,801 flights48.5%
Scale runs 35% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 42.5% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 2,628 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 71.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 59.0%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at DCA in July
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 75.2% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 62.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 3,554 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Airlines | 3,554 | 62.8% | 98 min | 13.62% | D− |
| American Airlines | 2,271 | 68.5% | 108 min | 7.97% | C− |
| Republic Airways | 2,203 | 75.2% | 79 min | 12.12% | B− |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,386 | 63.2% | 95 min | 4.47% | D− |
| Delta Air Lines | 808 | 65.1% | 144 min | 5.07% | C− |
| United Airlines | 648 | 67.4% | 147 min | 2.62% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 572 | 66.7% | 117 min | 7.34% | C− |
| Envoy Air | 482 | 72.2% | 74 min | 12.66% | C− |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 186 | 56.1% | 82 min | 2.15% | D |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 82 | 70.4% | 133 min | 1.22% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 13.6% 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
Busiest routes out of DCA in July
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DCA to BOS · Boston | 750 | 68.9% | 105 min | 9.87% | C− |
| DCA to ORD · Chicago | 590 | 65.3% | 134 min | 6.27% | C− |
| DCA to ATL · Atlanta | 582 | 66.7% | 111 min | 8.25% | C− |
| DCA to LGA · New York | 419 | 72.1% | 68 min | 15.27% | C− |
| DCA to MCO · Orlando | 395 | 67.6% | 96 min | 4.30% | C− |
| DCA to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 345 | 72.1% | 97 min | 10.72% | C− |
| DCA to MIA · Miamithin sample | 332 | 65.1% | 145 min | 7.83% | C− |
| DCA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 277 | 71.3% | 95 min | 7.94% | C− |
| DCA to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 245 | 68.5% | 112 min | 9.39% | C− |
| DCA to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 239 | 66.7% | 123 min | 9.62% | C− |
| DCA to PVD · Providencethin sample | 230 | 62.3% | 88 min | 10.87% | D− |
| DCA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 217 | 81.0% | 88 min | 17.51% | B− |
| DCA to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 207 | 74.6% | 153 min | 2.42% | C |
| DCA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 203 | 73.1% | 165 min | 4.93% | C− |
| DCA to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 200 | 60.6% | 112 min | 6.00% | D− |
| DCA to TPA · Tampathin sample | 181 | 68.0% | 110 min | 4.97% | C− |
| DCA to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 181 | 65.7% | 87 min | 6.63% | C− |
| DCA to CMH · Columbusthin sample | 180 | 70.4% | 93 min | 9.44% | C− |
| DCA to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample | 176 | 65.7% | 105 min | 4.55% | C− |
| DCA to IND · Indianapolisthin sample | 176 | 72.8% | 111 min | 10.23% | C− |
| DCA to BDL · Hartfordthin sample | 172 | 74.0% | 70 min | 15.12% | C− |
| DCA to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample | 166 | 65.1% | 84 min | 8.43% | C− |
| DCA to CHS · Charlestonthin sample | 150 | 63.5% | 97 min | 8.00% | D− |
| DCA to MSY · New Orleansthin sample | 150 | 67.4% | 86 min | 7.33% | C− |
| DCA to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 150 | 68.3% | 76 min | 5.33% | C− |
Delay causes
What held DCA up in July
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 373,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%Carrier
- 17%National Airspace System
- 12%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 12% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the comparison with the other months below is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 7%, so this operation carries roughly 1.6 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 372,923 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 9.51%, against 2.45% nationally. That is about one flight in ten 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. 17.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 12.1% 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.
What to do with this
Flying from DCA in July
For a July trip through DCA: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 89.6% on time, and with 17.0% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in September would.
Related
Where to go next
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA), the whole year
- DCA in August76.8%
- DCA in September77.9%
- DCA in October76.9%
- DCA in November72.7%
- DCA in December66.8%
- DCA in January75.1%
- DCA in February71.1%
- DCA in March70.2%
- DCA in April77.0%
- DCA in May74.8%
- DCA in June71.6%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.