Airport month record

DCAOCT

Ronald Reagan Washington National in October 2025

Departures: 12,273
Month: October 2025
National, same month: 79.7%
Carriers: 10

Historical statistics for October 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s October. For today’s conditions at DCA, see live FAA status.

DCA in October lands a B+, 3 points worse than the national rate of 79.7%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 12,273 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 803 at 87.4% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 87.4% on time across 803 flights.

On time

76.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 12,187 completed departures

Avg delay

61 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.62%

Nationally in October: 0.53%

Whole year

73.3%

DCA across all twelve months

These figures cover 12,273 departures from Ronald Reagan Washington National in October 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

October next to DCA's other months

Against DCA's own year, October ran 4 points better than the twelve-month rate of 73.3%, which makes it number three of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for DCA in October, at 0.62% against 3.69% across the year. Either side of it, September ran 77.9% on time and November 72.7%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.

DCA month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	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 (this page)	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 October

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,564 flights91.6%
8am–11am2,557 flights84.9%
11am–2pm2,017 flights78.6%
2pm–5pm2,192 flights70.8%
5pm–8pm2,138 flights66.2%
8pm–5am1,805 flights71.1%

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 91.6% of the time, against 66.2% for the evening window. That is 25 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 2,557 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 85.8% on time and Thursday the weakest at 71.6%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at DCA in October

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 87.4% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 68.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 582 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at DCA in October 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
PSA Airlines	3,263	75.3%	55 min	0.15%	B+
American Airlines	2,581	76.8%	82 min	0.89%	B+
Republic Airways	2,450	77.1%	59 min	1.55%	B
Southwest Airlines	1,359	74.7%	50 min	0.22%	C+
Delta Air Lines	803	87.4%	50 min	0.12%	A+
United Airlines	627	80.2%	45 min	0.16%	B+
JetBlue Airways	582	68.3%	73 min	0.69%	C+
Envoy Airthin sample	332	84.9%	51 min	0.00%	B+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	186	72.0%	55 min	0.00%	C+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	84	89.2%	43 min	1.19%	A

The spread between Delta and JetBlue is 19 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 19 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of DCA in October

Routes from DCA in October 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
DCA to BOS · Boston	774	64.9%	75 min	2.20%	D
DCA to ORD · Chicago	597	75.7%	55 min	0.67%	B+
DCA to ATL · Atlanta	582	83.8%	42 min	0.17%	B+
DCA to MCO · Orlando	398	80.2%	90 min	0.00%	B+
DCA to LGA · New York	398	66.5%	72 min	4.02%	C−
DCA to BNA · Nashville	386	77.5%	52 min	0.00%	B+
DCA to MIA · Miamithin sample	337	78.0%	64 min	0.30%	B+
DCA to IAH · Houstonthin sample	291	87.6%	42 min	0.00%	A+
DCA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	279	78.3%	62 min	0.72%	B+
DCA to DTW · Detroitthin sample	258	88.0%	76 min	0.00%	A+
DCA to CLT · Charlottethin sample	248	83.7%	182 min	0.81%	B+
DCA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	224	79.7%	81 min	3.12%	B−
DCA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	224	87.4%	62 min	0.45%	A+
DCA to STL · St. Louisthin sample	223	74.0%	51 min	0.00%	C+
DCA to PVD · Providencethin sample	212	78.3%	53 min	0.00%	B+
DCA to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	186	74.1%	69 min	0.54%	C+
DCA to MDW · Chicagothin sample	181	79.6%	48 min	0.00%	B+
DCA to RDU · Raleighthin sample	178	71.8%	44 min	0.56%	C+
DCA to IND · Indianapolisthin sample	178	87.0%	59 min	0.56%	A+
DCA to TPA · Tampathin sample	173	71.0%	56 min	2.31%	C
DCA to CMH · Columbusthin sample	173	81.5%	42 min	0.00%	B+
DCA to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample	164	71.8%	44 min	0.61%	C+
DCA to MSY · New Orleansthin sample	153	77.8%	58 min	0.00%	B+
DCA to CHS · Charlestonthin sample	151	76.0%	58 min	0.66%	B+
DCA to DAL · Dallasthin sample	146	73.6%	67 min	0.68%	C+

Delay causes

What held DCA up in October

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 172,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
47%
Carrier
26%
National Airspace System
25%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

47% 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 172,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 31 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. The split is drawn from 172,049 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.62%, below the national 0.53% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.

7.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.3%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from DCA in October

For a October trip through DCA: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 76.9% on time with 0.62% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA), the whole year
DCA in July67.0%
DCA in August76.8%
DCA in September77.9%
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.

Key figures