Route reliability record
DCA→BGR
Washington to Bangor
- Flights
- 1,122
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 590 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 7.1% 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 C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 1,122 DCA to BGR flights, with a median arrival 1 minute early.
Best time to fly DCA to BGR: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 74.3% of the time and Saturday flights 76.0%, against 67.4% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 10 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 99 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
67.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,038 completed flights
Avg delay
75 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
7.13%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
65.1% on time across 861 flights
These figures cover 1,122 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.7% 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 DCA to BGR
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 | 162 | 77.2% | 63 min | 2.47% | B |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 94 | 72.0% | 47 min | 1.06% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 861 | 65.1% | 80 min | 8.71% | C− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 5 | 40.0% | 75 min | 0.00% | 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.
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 11 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am354 flights74.3%
- 11am–2pm86 flights67.1%
- 2pm–5pm324 flights63.3%
- 5pm–8pm8 flights—
- 8pm–5am350 flights64.1%
Scale runs 55% to 80%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 74.3% of the time, against 63.3% for the afternoon window. That is 11 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 354 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DCA to BGR 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 DCA to BGR, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 74.3% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 63.3%, a wide gap of 11.0 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am74.3%
- 11am–2pm67.1%
- 2–5pm63.3%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am64.1%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 37 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.
July is the worst month at 52.4% on time, 37 points below October, the best at 89.0%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. June was the busiest month here, with 115 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 76.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 61.4%, a spread of 15 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 25,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 25,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 25,494 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 74.3% on time here.
Cancellations run at 7.13%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about 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
12.7% 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.
The 590 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg runs 69.3% on time across 1,123 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 1,122 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 BGR after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 7.13% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 1,038 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DCA to BGR questions
How often is DCA to BGR 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 32.6% of the 1,122 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is DCA to BGR compared with the rest of the country?
67.4% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 10 points against it. That is worth a C− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on DCA to BGR?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 74.3% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 63.3%, 11 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 July delays on DCA to BGR?
July is the weakest month at 52.4% on time, compared with 89.0% in October. Across the year that is 37 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
- BGR to DCA — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- American Airlines on DCA to BGR77.2%
- PSA Airlines on DCA to BGR65.1%
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- DCA to ORD, a related route73.8%
- DCA to ATL, a related route77.1%
- American Airlines on-time record77.2%
- Republic Airways on-time record72.0%
- PSA Airlines on-time record65.1%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DCA to BGR and BGR to DCA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed DCA to BGR’s on-time badge on your site
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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.