Carrier route record
AABOS→DCA
American Airlines · Boston to Washington
- Flights
- 2,262
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 25%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on BOS to DCA carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.2% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 2,262 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Republic Airways, flew 3,985 at 75.6% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate American on BOS to DCA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
76.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,183 completed flights
Avg delay
93 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.23%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
74.0%
Every carrier on BOS to DCA, 9,082 flights
These figures cover 2,262 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.3% 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 BOS to DCA
American flew 2,262 of the 9,082 flights on BOS to DCA, about 25% of it. Its 76.5% on time is 3 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 74.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 82.7% to Delta at 33.3%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 75.6% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 68.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,634 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 198 | 82.7% | 59 min | 5.56% | B− |
| American Airlines (this page) | 2,262 | 76.5% | 93 min | 3.23% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 3,985 | 75.6% | 62 min | 4.22% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 2,634 | 68.8% | 72 min | 3.80% | C− |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 3 | 33.3% | 46 min | 0.00% | F+ |
Republic Airways cancels 4.2% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
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 39 points, against 7 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am593 flights90.3%
- 8am–11am692 flights85.2%
- 11am–2pm256 flights73.7%
- 2pm–5pm97 flights51.5%
- 5pm–8pm358 flights60.1%
- 8pm–5am266 flights56.5%
Scale runs 45% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.3% of the time, against 51.5% for the afternoon window. That is 39 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 692 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on BOS to DCA through the year
April is the best month on the calendar at 86.5% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. September was the busiest month here, with 248 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 84.0% on time and Thursday the weakest at 70.7%. 13 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 52% of the 48,000 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.
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
52% 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 48,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 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 47,805 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 90.3% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.23%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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. 10.3% 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.
At 399 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 66.1% on time across 2,264 flights, 10 points below 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 10 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,262 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.
What to do with this
Booking American on BOS to DCA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.23% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; 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. 2,183 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- BOS to DCA, every carrier
- American on DCA to BOS, the return leg
- Envoy Air on BOS to DCA82.7%
- Republic Airways on BOS to DCA75.6%
- JetBlue Airways on BOS to DCA68.8%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Boston Logan International (BOS) delay statistics
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.