Route reliability record
CVG→DCA
Cincinnati to Washington
- Flights
- 1,019
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 411 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.8% 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 1,019 CVG to DCA flights, with a median arrival 2 minutes late.
Best time to fly CVG to DCA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 74.8% of the time and Saturday flights 71.4%, against 63.1% 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 142 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
63.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 960 completed flights
Avg delay
106 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.79%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
62.0% on time across 950 flights
These figures cover 1,019 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 19.3% 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 CVG 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlinesthin sample | 1 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 68 | 77.9% | 44 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PSA Airlines | 950 | 62.0% | 108 min | 6.21% | D− |
Flight by flight
Flights on CVG to DCA
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.
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 Cincinnati 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. 1 of the top 2 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. CVG → BWICincinnati to Baltimore | Southwest Airlines | 83.5% | 84.4% | 1.11% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 2. CVG → DCACincinnati to Washington | PSA Airlines | 58.1% | 62.0% | 6.21% | 5am–8am, Sat (route) | OH 5445 06:07 |
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 21 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am348 flights74.8%
- 8am–11am28 flights—
- 11am–2pm332 flights58.9%
- 2pm–5pm17 flights—
- 5pm–8pm294 flights53.4%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 45% to 80%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 53.4% on time, against 74.8% 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 348 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CVG 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 CVG to DCA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 74.8% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 53.4%, a wide gap of 21.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am74.8%
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm58.9%
- 2–5pm—
- 5–8pm53.4%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 45% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 34 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.
February is the weak month at 44.7% on time, against 78.5% in September. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. March was the busiest month here, with 90 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 71.4% on time and Thursday the weakest at 54.6%, a spread of 17 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 37,000 reported delay minutes.
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 26%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 37,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. The split is drawn from 37,367 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 74.8% on time here.
Cancellations run at 5.79%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in fifteen 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
19.3% 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 411 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 65.7% on time across 1,022 flights, within 3 points 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. 1,019 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 DCA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.79% 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. 960 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CVG to DCA questions
How often is CVG to DCA delayed?
Roughly 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 36.9% of the 1,019 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is CVG to DCA compared with the rest of the country?
63.1% 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 CVG to DCA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 74.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 53.4%, 21 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 February delays on CVG to DCA?
February is the weakest month at 44.7% on time, compared with 78.5% in September. Across the year that is 34 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 CVG — the return legseparate record
- Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG) delay statistics
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- CVG to ORD, a related route70.8%
- BOS to DCA, a related route72.6%
- CVG to ATL, a related route85.4%
- American Airlines on-time record100.0%
- Republic Airways on-time record77.9%
- PSA Airlines on-time record62.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. CVG to DCA and DCA to CVG 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.