Carrier route record
WNDCA→BNA
Southwest Airlines · Washington to Nashville
- Flights
- 1,707
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 39%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Southwest Airlines.
Southwest on DCA to BNA sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 1,707 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Republic Airways, flew 1,845 at 81.8% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Southwest on DCA to BNA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
74.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,663 completed flights
Avg delay
58 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.23%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
75.7%
Every carrier on DCA to BNA, 4,384 flights
These figures cover 1,707 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Southwest against every carrier on DCA to BNA
Southwest flew 1,707 of the 4,384 flights on DCA to BNA, about 39% of it. Its 74.4% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 75.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 81.8% to PSA at 60.1%. 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 81.8% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 60.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 399 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 1,845 | 81.8% | 64 min | 2.44% | B |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 143 | 76.6% | 58 min | 1.40% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 1,707 | 74.4% | 58 min | 2.23% | C |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 290 | 63.8% | 82 min | 4.83% | D− |
| PSA Airlines | 399 | 60.1% | 78 min | 8.77% | D− |
PSA Airlines cancels 8.8% 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.
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
When Southwest runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 41 points, against 22 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am364 flights94.4%
- 8am–11am331 flights79.3%
- 11am–2pm321 flights72.6%
- 2pm–5pm273 flights64.5%
- 5pm–8pm385 flights60.8%
- 8pm–5am33 flights53.3%
Scale runs 45% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 53.3% on time, against 94.4% 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 385 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Southwest on DCA to BNA through the year
Delays peak in May, when the on-time rate falls to 58.8%. January is the strongest month at 90.4%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 32 points. October was the busiest month here, with 153 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 81.4% on time and Friday the weakest at 67.6%, a spread of 14 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Southwest on DCA to BNA runs when it is late
The 426 late arrivals split 160 under half an hour, 131 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 135 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early316 flights19.0%
- Within 15 min921 flights55.4%
- 15–29 min late160 flights9.6%
- 30–59 min late131 flights7.9%
- 1–2 hours late87 flights5.2%
- 2+ hours late48 flights2.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 1,663 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
140 of 503 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 28% of them. 63 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Southwest on DCA to BNA
The latest arrival of the period was on 14 May 2026, 6 hours 22 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as a late-arriving aircraft.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 14 May 2026 | 6 hours 22 minutes | Carrier |
| 5 June 2026 | 6 hours 13 minutes | Carrier |
| 1 August 2026 | 5 hours 13 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 5 March 2026 | 4 hours 37 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 13 March 2026 | 3 hours 59 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Southwest runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 57% of the 25,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 57%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
57% 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 48 to one. The split is drawn from 24,587 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 94.4% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.23% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.35%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
8.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 562 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 68.9% on time across 1,708 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,707 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 Southwest on DCA to BNA
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 90.4% on time and May 58.8%, a swing of 32 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of May before you think about anything else. 1,663 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to BNA, every carrier
- Southwest on BNA to DCA, the return leg
- Republic Airways on DCA to BNA81.8%
- Envoy Air on DCA to BNA76.6%
- American Airlines on DCA to BNA63.8%
- PSA Airlines on DCA to BNA60.1%
- Southwest Airlines network-wide record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- 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.