Carrier route record

ASDCA→LAX

Alaska Airlines · Washington to Los Angeles

Flights: 364
Period: September 2025 to August 2026
Share of route: 25%
Carriers: 3

Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Alaska Airlines.

Alaska on DCA to LAX 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 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 364 flights, with a median arrival right on schedule.

The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so Alaska on DCA to LAX runs 7 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 68 extra late arrivals.

On time

70.5%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 356 completed flights

Avg delay

55 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.65%

National rate is 1.89%

Whole route

75.6%

Every carrier on DCA to LAX, 1,454 flights

These figures cover 364 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.

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Carrier by carrier

Alaska against every carrier on DCA to LAX

Alaska flew 364 of the 1,454 flights on DCA to LAX, about 25% of it. Its 70.5% on time is 5 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 75.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 77.3% to Alaska at 70.5%. 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.

On-time performance by carrier on DCA to LAX
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Delta Air Linesthin sample	362	77.3%	116 min	2.49%	B
American Airlines	728	77.3%	74 min	1.24%	B
Alaska Airlines (this page)thin sample	364	70.5%	55 min	1.65%	C

Flight by flight

Alaska flight numbers on DCA to LAX

AS 509:5970.5% · 364 flights

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Departure window

When Alaska runs best on this route

Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 364 flights.

There are not enough flights in each departure window to split Alaska's DCA to LAX record by time of day without the percentages moving on noise. The headline rate of 70.5% is the reliable figure here.

Across the year

Alaska on DCA to LAX through the year

Jul–Sep 202530 flights73.3%
Oct–Dec 202591 flights64.8%
Jan–Mar 202690 flights64.4%
Apr–Jun 202691 flights71.9%
Jul–Sep 202662 flights84.7%

Scale runs 55% to 90%.

Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 70.5% on time across 364 flights.

Alaska on DCA to LAX did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2026 at 84.7% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 64.4%, a swing of 20 points on roughly 73 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.

Across the week, Sunday is the strongest day at 76.0% on time and Friday the weakest at 64.7%, a spread of 11 points.

Arrival by arrival

How late Alaska on DCA to LAX runs when it is late

Alaska on DCA to LAX often beats the schedule: 107 of 356 completed flights, 30%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 105 late arrivals split 42 under half an hour, 34 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 29 an hour or more.

15+ min early107 flights30.1%
Within 15 min144 flights40.4%
15–29 min late42 flights11.8%
30–59 min late34 flights9.6%
1–2 hours late18 flights5.1%
2+ hours late11 flights3.1%

Scale runs 0% to 100%.

Share of 356 completed flights by arrival against schedule.

A late pushback is often recovered here: of 125 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 46 still arrived on time. In the other direction, 26 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at LAX.

The worst days

Worst days for Alaska on DCA to LAX

The latest arrival of the period was on 6 December 2025, 5 hours 14 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The five worst days are spread across December, July, January and May, with no single month standing out.

The latest arrivals of Alaska on DCA to LAX in the period
Date	Arrived late by	Largest filed cause
6 December 2025	5 hours 14 minutes	Carrier
3 July 2026	3 hours 47 minutes	National Airspace System
14 December 2025	3 hours 28 minutes	Late-arriving aircraft
29 January 2026	3 hours 12 minutes	Late-arriving aircraft
21 May 2026	2 hours 57 minutes	Carrier

Delay causes

Why Alaska runs late on this route

National Airspace System accounts for 54% of the 5,814 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.

National Airspace System
54%
Carrier
28%
Late-arriving aircraft
13%
Extreme weather
4%

54% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 3,159 minutes out of 5,814, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 5,814 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.65% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.55%.

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.

At 2,311 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 78.2% on time across 364 flights, 8 points above 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 8 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 364 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 Alaska on DCA to LAX

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 364 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 70.5% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 356 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated 22 October 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures