Flight number record
AS 5
Alaska Airlines · Washington to Los Angeles
- Route
- DCA → LAX
- Departs
- 09:59
- Flights
- 364
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s AS 5, check with Alaska Airlines.
AS 5 sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 7 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 364 flights, with a median arrival right on schedule.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so AS 5 runs 7 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 68 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
70.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 356 completed flights
Avg delay
55 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.65%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
8.1%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 364 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Schedule
When AS 5 flies
AS 5 is scheduled to leave Washington (DCA) at 09:59 local time and reach Los Angeles (LAX) at 12:27. That slot held for 318 of the 364 scheduled departures in the data, so the figures below describe one steady operation rather than a number that moved around the clock.
- Departs 09:59318 flights87.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of scheduled departures at each local time. Times used on fewer than one flight in ten are not listed.
A 09:59 departure sits in the 8am–11am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 83.9%, and AS 5 runs 13 points worse at 70.5%. Early departures usually start with an aircraft that has not flown yet that day, which is most of why the window does well.
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Against the route
AS 5 next to DCA to LAX
Every carrier on DCA to LAX combined arrived on time 75.6% of the time across 1,454 flights, so AS 5 is 5 points behind it. Across its whole network Alaska Airlines managed 79.7%, which this flight trails by 9 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS 5thin sample | 364 | 70.5% | 55 min | 1.65% | C |
| All Alaska Airlines on DCA–LAXthin sample | 364 | 70.5% | 55 min | 1.65% | C |
| All carriers on DCA–LAX | 1,454 | 75.6% | 78 min | 1.65% | B |
| Alaska Airlines, whole network | 309,844 | 79.7% | 52 min | 1.20% | B |
Across the year
AS 5 quarter by quarter
AS 5 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2026 at 84.7% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 64.4%, a swing of 20 points on roughly 73 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights73.3%
- Oct–Dec 202591 flights64.8%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights64.4%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights71.9%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights84.7%
Scale runs 55% to 90%.
By weekday, AS 5 ranged from 64.7% on Friday to 76.0% on Sunday. With about 52 flights behind each day, a spread of 11 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.
Arrival by arrival
How late AS 5 runs when it is late
AS 5 often beats the schedule: 107 of 356 completed flights, 30%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 105 late arrivals split 42 under half an hour, 34 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 29 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early107 flights30.1%
- Within 15 min144 flights40.4%
- 15–29 min late42 flights11.8%
- 30–59 min late34 flights9.6%
- 1–2 hours late18 flights5.1%
- 2+ hours late11 flights3.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 356 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
A late pushback is often recovered here: of 125 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 46 still arrived on time. In the other direction, 26 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at LAX.
The worst days
Worst days for AS 5
The latest arrival of the period was on 6 December 2025, 5 hours 14 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The five worst days are spread across December, July, January and May, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 6 December 2025 | 5 hours 14 minutes | Carrier |
| 3 July 2026 | 3 hours 47 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 14 December 2025 | 3 hours 28 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 29 January 2026 | 3 hours 12 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 21 May 2026 | 2 hours 57 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why AS 5 runs late
National Airspace System accounts for 54% of the 5,814 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 54%National Airspace System
- 28%Carrier
- 13%Late-arriving aircraft
- 4%Extreme weather
54% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 3,159 minutes out of 5,814, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 5,814 delay minutes reported on AS 5.
Cancellations sit at 1.65% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.55%.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
8.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so 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.
At 2,311 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
Every one of the 364 flights under AS 5 in the data flew DCA to LAX. The number was not reused on any other city pair, which makes this a clean record of one route.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 364 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking AS 5
For a booking, AS 5 is one of the weaker ways to fly DCA to LAX: 5 points below the route as a whole. If the schedule allows, compare it with the other departures listed on the route page before settling on this one.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to LAX, every carrier and departure
- LAX to DCA, the return direction
- American Airlines 1966 on the same route82.5%
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Alaska Airlines on-time record
- Every Alaska Airlines flight number with a record
- The most and least reliable flight numbers in the US
- Connecting flights: how much buffer the data says you need
A flight number here means Alaska Airlines’s own number as it reports to the DOT. How the figures are computed is on the methodology page.
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.