Carrier route record
AADCA→BTV
American Airlines · Washington to Burlington
- 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 DCA to BTV sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 7 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 232 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so American on DCA to BTV runs 7 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 72 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
70.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 226 completed flights
Avg delay
63 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.59%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
70.0%
Every carrier on DCA to BTV, 1,169 flights
These figures cover 232 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.3% 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 DCA to BTV
American flew 232 of the 1,169 flights on DCA to BTV, about 20% of it. Its 70.4% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 70.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 77.1% to PSA at 69.2%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 77 | 77.1% | 91 min | 7.79% | B− |
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 232 | 70.4% | 63 min | 2.59% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 860 | 69.2% | 84 min | 4.53% | C− |
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 11 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–8am—
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm33 flights75.8%
- 2pm–5pm94 flights73.9%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am105 flights65.3%
Scale runs 55% to 80%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 75.8% on time, ahead of 8pm–5am at 65.3%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 105 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on DCA to BTV through the year
- Jul–Sep 2025116 flights72.3%
- Oct–Dec 20259 flights—
- Jan–Mar 202671 flights66.7%
- Apr–Jun 202636 flights69.4%
Scale runs 60% to 80%. 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 70.4% on time across 232 flights.
Quarter by quarter American on DCA to BTV held fairly steady: 72.3% in Jul–Sep 2025, 66.7% in Jan–Mar 2026 and 69.4% in Apr–Jun 2026. A spread of 6 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Wednesday the weakest at 60.5%. 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. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 4,204 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.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
56% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 4,204 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 35 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 4,204 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.59%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 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. 9.3% 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 11am–2pm window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 71.6% 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 DCA to BTV
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 232 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 70.4% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 226 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.