Route reliability record
DCA→CVG
Washington to Cincinnati
- Flights
- 1,022
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 411 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.2% 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 1,022 DCA to CVG flights, with a median arrival 1 minute early.
Best time to fly DCA to CVG: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Monday. Flights in that window arrived on time 74.6% of the time and Monday flights 69.1%, against 65.7% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 12 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 116 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
65.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 977 completed flights
Avg delay
88 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.21%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
63.9% on time across 954 flights
These figures cover 1,022 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 16.2% 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
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to CVG
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 | 67 | 89.6% | 43 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PSA Airlines | 954 | 63.9% | 89 min | 4.51% | D− |
Flight by flight
Flights on DCA to CVG
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 Washington to Cincinnati
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. BWI → CVGBaltimore to Cincinnati | Southwest Airlines | 79.1% | 80.9% | 2.22% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 2. DCA → CVGWashington to Cincinnati | PSA Airlines | 61.0% | 63.9% | 4.51% | 8am–11am, Mon (route) | OH 5673 19:56 |
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 16 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am349 flights74.6%
- 11am–2pm15 flights—
- 2pm–5pm271 flights63.1%
- 5pm–8pm275 flights58.7%
- 8pm–5am112 flights61.5%
Scale runs 50% to 80%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 58.7% on time, against 74.6% for the 8am–11am 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 349 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DCA to CVG 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 CVG, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 74.6% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 58.7%, a wide gap of 15.9 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am74.6%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2–5pm63.1%
- 5–8pm58.7%
- 8pm–5am61.5%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 27 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.
May is the best month on the calendar at 81.0% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 90 flights.
Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 69.1% on time and Thursday the weakest at 60.5%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 54% of the 30,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 54%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%Carrier
- 15%National Airspace System
- 10%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
54% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 30,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 29,540 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 74.6% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.21%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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
16.2% 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 8am–11am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 63.1% on time across 1,019 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. 1,022 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 CVG after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.21% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; 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. 977 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DCA to CVG questions
How often is DCA to CVG 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 34.3% of the 1,022 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is DCA to CVG compared with the rest of the country?
65.7% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 12 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 CVG?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 74.6% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 58.7%, 16 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 November delays on DCA to CVG?
November is the weakest month at 53.7% on time, compared with 81.0% in May. Across the year that is 27 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
- CVG to DCA — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG) delay statistics
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- ORD to CVG, a related route72.1%
- DCA to ORD, a related route73.8%
- American Airlines on-time record100.0%
- Republic Airways on-time record89.6%
- PSA Airlines on-time record63.9%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DCA to CVG and CVG to DCA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed DCA to CVG’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.