Route reliability record
CLE→DCA
Cleveland to Washington
- Flights
- 1,605
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 310 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 8.1% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about two flights in three arrive on time, worth a D− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 1,605 CLE to DCA flights, with a median arrival 1 minute late.
Best time to fly CLE to DCA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 81.8% of the time and Saturday flights 74.2%, against 63.8% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 14 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 135 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
63.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,473 completed flights
Avg delay
101 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
8.10%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
64.0% on time across 1,403 flights
These figures cover 1,605 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 16.3% 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 CLE to DCA
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 | 46 | 89.1% | 37 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 7 | 85.7% | 17 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PSA Airlines | 1,403 | 64.0% | 108 min | 9.05% | D− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 149 | 53.4% | 61 min | 2.01% | F |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Cleveland 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. 2 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. CLE → IADCleveland to Washington | United Airlines | 87.3% | 87.6% | 0.38% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 2. CLE → BWICleveland to Baltimore | Southwest Airlines | 83.8% | 84.8% | 1.13% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 3. CLE → DCACleveland to Washington | PSA Airlines | 58.2% | 64.0% | 9.05% | 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 43 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am343 flights81.8%
- 8am–11am304 flights81.4%
- 11am–2pm256 flights57.7%
- 2pm–5pm280 flights54.3%
- 5pm–8pm268 flights48.5%
- 8pm–5am154 flights39.1%
Scale runs 30% to 85%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 39.1% on time, against 81.8% 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 343 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CLE to DCA 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 CLE to DCA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 81.8% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 39.1%, a wide gap of 42.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am81.8%
- 8–11am81.4%
- 11am–2pm57.7%
- 2–5pm54.3%
- 5–8pm48.5%
- 8pm–5am39.1%
best all US flightsScale 30% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 28 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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 79.3% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. October was the busiest month here, with 141 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 74.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 58.5%, a spread of 16 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 54,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%National Airspace System
- 25%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 54,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 14 to one. The split is drawn from 53,693 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 81.8% on time here.
Cancellations run at 8.10%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in twelve 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 actually costs
16.3% 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 310 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 65.6% on time across 1,604 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,605 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in DCA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 8.10% 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. 1,473 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CLE to DCA questions
How often is CLE to DCA delayed?
About one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 36.2% of the 1,605 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is CLE to DCA compared with the rest of the country?
63.8% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 14 points against it. That is worth a D− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on CLE to DCA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 81.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 39.1%, 43 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 CLE to DCA?
March is the weakest month at 51.7% on time, compared with 79.3% in September. Across the year that is 28 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
- DCA to CLE — the return legseparate record
- Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE) delay statistics
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- PSA Airlines on CLE to DCA64.0%
- Envoy Air on CLE to DCA53.4%
- CLE to ORD, a related route74.5%
- BOS to DCA, a related route72.6%
- CLE to ATL, a related route84.6%
- Republic Airways on-time record89.1%
- American Airlines on-time record85.7%
- PSA Airlines on-time record64.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. CLE to DCA and DCA to CLE 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.