Flight number record
UA 1709
United Airlines · Nashville to Washington
- Route
- BNA → IAD
- Departs
- 08:30
- Flights
- 299
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s UA 1709, check with United Airlines.
UA 1709 earns an A. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 9 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 299 flights, with a median arrival 8 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, UA 1709's record is 9 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 93 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
86.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 291 completed flights
Avg delay
69 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.68%
National rate is 1.81%
1 hour+ late
3.8%
National rate is 8.1%
These figures cover 299 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 8 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Schedule
When UA 1709 flies
UA 1709 is scheduled to leave Nashville (BNA) at 08:30 local time and reach Washington (IAD) at 11:15. That slot held for 266 of the 299 scheduled departures in the data, so the figures below describe one steady operation rather than a number that moved around the clock.
- Departs 08:30266 flights89.0%
- Departs 08:2531 flights10.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Share of scheduled departures at each local time. Times used on fewer than one flight in ten are not listed.
A 08:30 departure sits in the 8am–11am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 84.1%, and UA 1709 runs 3 points better at 86.9%. Early departures usually start with an aircraft that has not flown yet that day, which is most of why the window does well.
Against the route
UA 1709 next to BNA to IAD
Every carrier on BNA to IAD combined arrived on time 78.1% of the time across 1,011 flights, so UA 1709 is 9 points ahead of it. United flew 935 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 77.8% on time. Across its whole network United Airlines managed 79.0%, which this flight beats by 8 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UA 1709thin sample | 299 | 86.9% | 69 min | 2.68% | A |
| All United Airlines on BNA–IAD | 935 | 77.8% | 83 min | 1.28% | B |
| All carriers on BNA–IAD | 1,011 | 78.1% | 83 min | 1.19% | B |
| United Airlines, whole network | 821,041 | 79.0% | 72 min | 1.01% | B |
Across the year
UA 1709 quarter by quarter
UA 1709 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 94.7% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 79.5%, a swing of 15 points on roughly 75 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 202577 flights94.7%
- Oct–Dec 202568 flights80.9%
- Jan–Mar 202679 flights79.5%
- Apr–Jun 202675 flights91.9%
Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, UA 1709 did best on Wednesday at 94.7% on time and worst on Monday at 80.9%. Each day rests on about 43 flights, so a gap of 14 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Delay causes
Why UA 1709 runs late
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 88% of the 2,621 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.
- 88%Carrier
- 9%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 88%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 2,307 of the 2,621 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 2,621 delay minutes reported on UA 1709.
Cancellations run at 2.68%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 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.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.8% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
The 542 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The same number turns up on four other city pairs in the data, including IAD to BOS (109), IAD to CLE (62) and BOS to SFO (19), but none flew often enough under UA 1709 to report a rate for. Carriers move flight numbers between routes, so the figures on this page apply to BNA to IAD only.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 299 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 UA 1709
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on UA 1709: 2.68% of its 299 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs a little over an hour, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- BNA to IAD, every carrier and departure
- IAD to BNA, the return direction
- United Airlines 2125 on the same route78.0%
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- Washington Dulles International (IAD) delay statistics
- United Airlines on-time record
- Every United Airlines flight number with a record
- The most and least reliable flight numbers in the US
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
A flight number here means United 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.