Carrier route record
AABGR→DCA
American Airlines · Bangor to Washington
- Flights
- 232
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 21%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on BGR to DCA sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 8 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 232 flights, with a median arrival 1 minute early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so American on BGR to DCA runs 8 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 77 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
69.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 226 completed flights
Avg delay
83 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.59%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
69.5%
Every carrier on BGR to DCA, 1,111 flights
These figures cover 232 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on BGR to DCA
American flew 232 of the 1,111 flights on BGR to DCA, about 21% of it. Its 69.9% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 69.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 84.6% to Envoy at 28.6%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 | 93 | 84.6% | 60 min | 2.15% | B |
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 232 | 69.9% | 83 min | 2.59% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 778 | 67.9% | 115 min | 6.81% | C− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 8 | 28.6% | 60 min | 12.50% | F− |
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 31 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am36 flights88.6%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm87 flights77.9%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm109 flights57.1%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 57.1% on time, against 88.6% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 109 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on BGR to DCA through the year
- Jul–Sep 2025165 flights65.0%
- Oct–Dec 202563 flights80.6%
- Jan–Mar 20264 flights—
Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 69.9% on time across 232 flights.
Split by quarter, American on BGR to DCA logged 165 flights in Jul–Sep 2025, 63 flights in Oct–Dec 2025 and 4 flights in Jan–Mar 2026. Fewer than three of those quarters carried the 30 completed flights this site needs before printing a rate, so the 69.9% annual figure is the one to use.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 77.4% on time and Thursday the weakest at 65.7%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 57% of the 5,632 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.
- 57%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%National Airspace System
- 20%Carrier
- 0%Security
57% 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 5,632 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 57 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 5,632 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 88.6% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.59%, 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 stage length
What a delay here costs
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum 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. 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 return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 76.5% on time across 232 flights, 7 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 7 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 232 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 American on BGR to DCA
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 232 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 69.9% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 226 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
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.