Carrier route record
AABOS→DCA
American Airlines · Boston to Washington
- Flights
- 2,231
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 25%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 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: 3.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% 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 2,231 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Republic Airways, flew 3,999 at 75.1% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, 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
75.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,153 completed flights
Avg delay
88 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.27%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
72.6%
Every carrier on BOS to DCA, 9,105 flights
These figures cover 2,231 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on BOS to DCA
American flew 2,231 of the 9,105 flights on BOS to DCA, about 25% of it. Its 75.1% on time is 3 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 72.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 78.5% to Delta at 42.9%. 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 75.1% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 66.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,626 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 241 | 78.5% | 68 min | 6.64% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 3,999 | 75.1% | 62 min | 3.90% | B− |
| American Airlines (this page) | 2,231 | 75.1% | 88 min | 3.27% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 2,626 | 66.3% | 74 min | 4.87% | C− |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 8 | 42.9% | 45 min | 12.50% | F− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 4.9% 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.
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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 9 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am563 flights90.6%
- 8am–11am702 flights84.5%
- 11am–2pm203 flights74.9%
- 2pm–5pm97 flights51.5%
- 5pm–8pm441 flights54.8%
- 8pm–5am225 flights55.6%
Scale runs 45% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.6% 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 702 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 82.2% on time and Thursday the weakest at 70.1%, a spread of 12 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on BOS to DCA runs when it is late
American on BOS to DCA often beats the schedule: 652 of 2,153 completed flights, 30%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 537 late arrivals split 148 under half an hour, 149 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 240 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early652 flights30.3%
- Within 15 min964 flights44.8%
- 15–29 min late148 flights6.9%
- 30–59 min late149 flights6.9%
- 1–2 hours late125 flights5.8%
- 2+ hours late115 flights5.3%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 2,153 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 486 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 41 made it up before arrival. 92 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on BOS to DCA
The latest arrival of the period was on 6 September 2025, 14 hours 55 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 6 September 2025 | 14 hours 55 minutes | Carrier |
| 12 January 2026 | 13 hours 5 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 27 March 2026 | 12 hours 7 minutes | Carrier |
| 5 November 2025 | 10 hours 46 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 20 March 2026 | 10 hours 29 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 47,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 17%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
56% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 47,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 21 to one. The split is drawn from 47,371 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 90.6% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.27%, against 1.89% 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
11.1% 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.
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 65.5% on time across 2,233 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 2,231 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 3.27% 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. 2,153 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 DCA78.5%
- Republic Airways on BOS to DCA75.1%
- JetBlue Airways on BOS to DCA66.3%
- 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.