Route reliability record
DCA→DFW
Washington to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 3,304
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,192 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 3,304 DCA to DFW flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
Best time to fly DCA to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.1% of the time and Tuesday flights 85.2%, against 78.8% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,183 completed flights
Avg delay
88 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.85%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
78.8% on time across 3,304 flights
These figures cover 3,304 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 10 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to DFW
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 Airlines | 3,304 | 78.8% | 88 min | 2.85% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on DCA to DFW
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 Dallas-Fort Worth
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. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. IAD → DFWWashington to Dallas-Fort Worth | United Airlines | 79.6% | 80.0% | 0.54% | 8am–11am, Tue | UA 2116 18:00 |
| 2. DCA → DFWWashington to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 76.6% | 78.8% | 2.85% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 1978 07:45 |
| 3. BWI → DALBaltimore to Dallas | Southwest Airlines | 74.2% | 75.8% | 2.06% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 4. IAD → DFWWashington to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 72.6% | 74.4% | 2.47% | 5am–8am, Wed | AA 2617 06:00 |
| 5. BWI → DFWBaltimore to Dallas-Fort Worth | American Airlines | 71.5% | 73.7% | 3.00% | 5am–8am, Thu | AA 1403 06:00 |
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 26 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am719 flights89.1%
- 8am–11am774 flights83.8%
- 11am–2pm636 flights80.5%
- 2pm–5pm452 flights76.4%
- 5pm–8pm723 flights62.6%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 62.6% on time, against 89.1% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 774 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DCA to DFW 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 DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.1% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 62.6%, a wide gap of 26.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.1%
- 8–11am83.8%
- 11am–2pm80.5%
- 2–5pm76.4%
- 5–8pm62.6%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 3,304 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
December is the weak month at 75.0% on time, against 81.8% in August. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 300 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 85.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.5%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 42% of the 59,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 32%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 7%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 59,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 59,099 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 89.1% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.85%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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 actually costs
7.5% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,192 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 73.6% on time across 3,303 flights, 5 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 5 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 3,304 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 DFW after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 2.85% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; 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. 3,183 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DCA to DFW questions
How often is DCA to DFW delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.2% of the 3,304 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 DFW compared with the rest of the country?
78.8% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 points in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on DCA to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 62.6%, 26 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 December delays on DCA to DFW?
December is the weakest month at 75.0% on time, compared with 81.8% in August. Across the year that is 7 points between the best and worst months. The seasonal swing is modest enough that it should not decide when you travel.
Related
Where to go next
- DFW to DCA — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- DCA to ORD, a related route73.8%
- American Airlines on-time record78.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DCA to DFW and DFW to DCA 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.