Route reliability record
BGR→DCA
Bangor to Washington
- Flights
- 1,123
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 590 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 6.4% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten 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 1,123 BGR to DCA flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes early.
Best time to fly BGR to DCA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 82.1% of the time and Tuesday flights 75.8%, against 69.3% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 8 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 80 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
69.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,048 completed flights
Avg delay
119 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
6.41%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
66.8% on time across 861 flights
These figures cover 1,123 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 13.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on BGR to DCA
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 95 | 82.8% | 58 min | 2.11% | B |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 162 | 74.8% | 60 min | 1.85% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 861 | 66.8% | 132 min | 7.78% | C− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 5 | 40.0% | 72 min | 0.00% | F+ |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 26 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am364 flights82.1%
- 8am–11am42 flights81.6%
- 11am–2pm334 flights65.2%
- 2pm–5pm130 flights55.6%
- 5pm–8pm253 flights61.5%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 45% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 82.1% of the time, against 55.6% for the afternoon window. That is 26 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 364 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter BGR to DCA by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On BGR to DCA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 82.1% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 55.6%, a wide gap of 26.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am82.1%
- 8–11am81.6%
- 11am–2pm65.2%
- 2–5pm55.6%
- 5–8pm61.5%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 45% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 23 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
January is the weak month at 56.8% on time, against 80.2% in October. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. June was the busiest month here, with 115 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 75.8% on time and Sunday the weakest at 65.8%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 38,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 10%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 38,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 38,355 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 82.1% on time here.
Cancellations run at 6.41%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in fifteen 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 stage length
What a delay here actually costs
13.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 590 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.
The return leg runs 67.4% on time across 1,122 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,123 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in DCA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 6.41% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 1,048 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
BGR to DCA questions
How often is BGR to DCA delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 30.7% of the 1,123 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is BGR to DCA compared with the rest of the country?
69.3% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 8 points against it. That is worth a C− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on BGR to DCA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 82.1% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 55.6%, 26 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are January delays on BGR to DCA?
January is the weakest month at 56.8% on time, compared with 80.2% in October. Across the year that is 23 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to BGR — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- American Airlines on BGR to DCA74.8%
- PSA Airlines on BGR to DCA66.8%
- BGR to ORD, a related route74.6%
- BOS to DCA, a related route72.6%
- ORD to DCA, a related route69.0%
- Republic Airways on-time record82.8%
- American Airlines on-time record74.8%
- PSA Airlines on-time record66.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. BGR to DCA and DCA to BGR are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed BGR to DCA’s on-time badge on your site
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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.