Airport month record

DCASEP

Ronald Reagan Washington National in September 2025

Departures: 11,822
Month: September 2025
National, same month: 83.4%
Carriers: 10

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

DCA in September lands a B+, 6 points worse than the national rate of 83.4%. Roughly one flight in five 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 11,822 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 779 at 84.4% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 84.4% on time across 779 flights.

On time

77.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 11,708 completed departures

Avg delay

66 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.82%

Nationally in September: 0.51%

Whole year

73.3%

DCA across all twelve months

These figures cover 11,822 departures from Ronald Reagan Washington National in September 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

September next to DCA's other months

Against DCA's own year, September ran 5 points better than the twelve-month rate of 73.3%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations were unusually low for DCA in September, at 0.82% against 3.69% across the year. Either side of it, August ran 76.8% on time and October 76.9%, 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 (this page)	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 September

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–8am1,480 flights92.0%
8am–11am2,502 flights85.1%
11am–2pm1,918 flights81.0%
2pm–5pm2,129 flights70.5%
5pm–8pm2,093 flights67.3%
8pm–5am1,700 flights73.5%

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 92.0% of the time, against 67.3% 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 2,502 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 84.6% on time and Wednesday the weakest at 67.5%. 17 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at DCA in September

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 84.4% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 65.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 524 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at DCA in September 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
PSA Airlines	3,087	79.0%	66 min	1.00%	B
American Airlines	2,726	72.5%	74 min	0.84%	C+
Republic Airways	2,180	81.2%	59 min	1.28%	B
Southwest Airlines	1,320	80.5%	54 min	0.08%	B+
Delta Air Lines	779	84.4%	80 min	0.00%	B+
United Airlines	628	80.6%	56 min	0.48%	B+
JetBlue Airways	524	65.3%	78 min	0.57%	C+
Envoy Airthin sample	318	78.1%	54 min	2.20%	B
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	180	78.8%	45 min	0.56%	B+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	80	78.8%	55 min	0.00%	B+

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 September

Routes from DCA in September 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
DCA to BOS · Boston	761	60.7%	73 min	1.97%	D
DCA to ATL · Atlanta	594	85.0%	54 min	0.17%	A+
DCA to ORD · Chicago	577	76.3%	60 min	0.35%	B+
DCA to LGA · New York	385	78.0%	61 min	1.82%	B
DCA to MCO · Orlandothin sample	358	78.2%	92 min	0.00%	B+
DCA to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	338	84.0%	52 min	0.00%	B+
DCA to MIA · Miamithin sample	326	68.0%	51 min	0.61%	C+
DCA to IAH · Houstonthin sample	272	86.0%	53 min	0.00%	A+
DCA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	270	76.8%	80 min	2.59%	B
DCA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	262	84.4%	92 min	2.29%	B
DCA to DTW · Detroitthin sample	247	87.4%	98 min	0.00%	A+
DCA to CLT · Charlottethin sample	239	79.4%	158 min	1.67%	B
DCA to PVD · Providencethin sample	222	81.4%	54 min	0.45%	B+
DCA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	218	87.6%	90 min	0.00%	A+
DCA to STL · St. Louisthin sample	216	81.3%	85 min	0.93%	B+
DCA to MDW · Chicagothin sample	176	88.1%	59 min	0.00%	A+
DCA to IND · Indianapolisthin sample	173	81.3%	43 min	0.58%	B+
DCA to TPA · Tampathin sample	172	73.3%	50 min	0.00%	C+
DCA to RDU · Raleighthin sample	172	69.0%	65 min	0.58%	C+
DCA to CMH · Columbusthin sample	171	88.8%	46 min	1.17%	A
DCA to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample	158	83.5%	49 min	0.00%	B+
DCA to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	145	75.0%	56 min	0.00%	B+
DCA to CHS · Charlestonthin sample	145	71.0%	67 min	0.00%	C+
DCA to MSY · New Orleansthin sample	142	80.3%	60 min	0.00%	B+
DCA to DAL · Dallasthin sample	142	77.1%	45 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held DCA up in September

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% 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
45%
Carrier
28%
National Airspace System
24%
Extreme weather
3%
Security
0%

45% 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 15 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 171,979 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.82%, below the national 0.51% 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.

7.6% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 5.4%. 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 September

For a September trip through DCA: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 77.9% on time with 0.82% 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 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.

Key figures