Route reliability record
BNA→IAD
Nashville to Washington
- Flights
- 997
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 542 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 997 BNA to IAD flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes early.
Best time to fly BNA to IAD: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 85.9% of the time and Wednesday flights 84.3%, against 77.5% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 983 completed flights
Avg delay
92 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.20%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
77.2% on time across 927 flights
These figures cover 997 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.5% 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 BNA to IAD
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 1 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 37 | 83.8% | 78 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Allegiant Airthin sample | 32 | 77.4% | 117 min | 3.12% | B− |
| United Airlines | 927 | 77.2% | 92 min | 1.19% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on BNA to IAD
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Nashville to Washington
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. BNA → IADNashville to Washington | United Airlines | 76.3% | 77.2% | 1.19% | 8am–11am, Wed (route) | UA 1709 08:30 |
| 2. BNA → BWINashville to Baltimore | Southwest Airlines | 75.4% | 76.7% | 1.70% | 8am–11am, Wed (route) | — |
| 3. BNA → DCANashville to Washington | Republic Airways | 71.8% | 74.1% | 3.09% | 8am–11am, Sat | YX 5708 06:05 |
| 4. BNA → DCANashville to Washington | Southwest Airlines | 67.9% | 68.9% | 1.52% | 8am–11am, Sat | — |
| 5. BNA → DCANashville to Washington | PSA Airlines | 62.2% | 67.3% | 7.52% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
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 18 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2 flights—
- 8am–11am305 flights85.9%
- 11am–2pm390 flights78.4%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm300 flights68.1%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 85.9% of the time, against 68.1% for the evening window. That is 18 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 390 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter BNA to IAD 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 BNA to IAD, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 85.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 68.1%, a wide gap of 17.8 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am85.9%
- 11am–2pm78.4%
- 2–5pm—
- 5–8pm68.1%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 19 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.
Delays peak in March, when the on-time rate falls to 67.4%. February is the strongest month at 86.2%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 19 points. July was the busiest month here, with 98 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.3% on time and Monday the weakest at 72.3%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 20,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 20,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 20,310 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 37%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 7,598 of the 20,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.20% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.20%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.5% 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 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.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 81.0% on time across 998 flights, 4 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 4 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 997 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in IAD after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 997 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 77.5% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 983 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
BNA to IAD questions
How often is BNA to IAD delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 22.5% of the 997 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is BNA to IAD compared with the rest of the country?
77.5% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of half a point in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on BNA to IAD?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 85.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.1%, 18 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 March delays on BNA to IAD?
March is the weakest month at 67.4% on time, compared with 86.2% in February. Across the year that is 19 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
- IAD to BNA — the return legseparate record
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- Washington Dulles International (IAD) delay statistics
- BNA to ORD, a related route70.9%
- ATL to IAD, a related route76.4%
- BNA to DCA, a related route71.3%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record100.0%
- Republic Airways on-time record83.8%
- Allegiant Air on-time record77.4%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. BNA to IAD and IAD to BNA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.