Carrier route record
AABTV→DCA
American Airlines · Burlington to Washington
- Flights
- 232
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 20%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on BTV 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, 6 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land close to two hours behind schedule. That rests on 232 flights, with a median arrival right on schedule.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so American on BTV to DCA runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 60 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
71.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 222 completed flights
Avg delay
101 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.02%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
66.4%
Every carrier on BTV to DCA, 1,168 flights
These figures cover 232 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.8% 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 BTV to DCA
American flew 232 of the 1,168 flights on BTV to DCA, about 20% of it. Its 71.6% on time is 5 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 66.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 71.6% to PSA at 64.6%. One 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 232 | 71.6% | 101 min | 3.02% | C− |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 77 | 70.4% | 103 min | 7.79% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 859 | 64.6% | 129 min | 5.36% | D− |
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 23 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–8am106 flights84.2%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm33 flights61.3%
- 5pm–8pm93 flights61.1%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.1% on time, against 84.2% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 106 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on BTV to DCA through the year
- Jul–Sep 2025116 flights66.1%
- Oct–Dec 20259 flights—
- Jan–Mar 202670 flights71.6%
- Apr–Jun 202637 flights86.5%
Scale runs 60% to 90%. 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 71.6% on time across 232 flights.
American on BTV to DCA did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 86.5% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2025 at 66.1%, a swing of 20 points on roughly 77 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 77.8% on time and Thursday the weakest at 58.3%. 20 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. Carrier accounts for 51% of the 6,366 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.
- 51%Carrier
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 19%National Airspace System
- 0%Security
- 0%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 51%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 3,233 of the 6,366 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 6,366 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 84.2% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.02%, against 1.81% nationally. That is roughly 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. 10.8% 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 437 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 runs 70.4% on time across 232 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
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 BTV to DCA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.02% 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. 222 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.