Carrier route record

AADCA→LAX

American Airlines · Washington to Los Angeles

Flights: 728
Period: September 2025 to August 2026
Share of route: 50%
Carriers: 3

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

American on DCA to LAX lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 728 flights, with a median arrival 8 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on DCA to LAX from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

77.3%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 705 completed flights

Avg delay

74 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.24%

National rate is 1.89%

Whole route

75.6%

Every carrier on DCA to LAX, 1,454 flights

These figures cover 728 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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

American against every carrier on DCA to LAX

American flew 728 of the 1,454 flights on DCA to LAX, most of the route. Its 77.3% on time is 2 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 75.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 77.3% to Alaska at 70.5%. Two 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 (this page)	728	77.3%	74 min	1.24%	B
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	364	70.5%	55 min	1.65%	C

Flight by flight

American flight numbers on DCA to LAX

AA 196608:3082.5% · 364 flights

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 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.

5am–8am—
8am–11am364 flights82.5%
11am–2pm—
2pm–5pm18 flights—
5pm–8pm346 flights71.5%
8pm–5am—

Scale runs 65% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 82.5% of the time, against 71.5% for the evening window. That is 11 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 364 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

American on DCA to LAX through the year

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.March best, June worst

June is the worst month at 65.5% on time, 17 points below March, the best at 82.3%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. January was the busiest month here, with 62 flights.

Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 81.2% on time and Thursday the weakest at 73.3%, a spread of 8 points.

Arrival by arrival

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

American on DCA to LAX often beats the schedule: 274 of 705 completed flights, 39%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 160 late arrivals split 63 under half an hour, 48 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 49 an hour or more.

15+ min early274 flights38.9%
Within 15 min271 flights38.4%
15–29 min late63 flights8.9%
30–59 min late48 flights6.8%
1–2 hours late25 flights3.5%
2+ hours late24 flights3.4%

Scale runs 0% to 100%.

Share of 705 completed flights by arrival against schedule.

A late pushback is often recovered here: of 146 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 44 still arrived on time. In the other direction, 58 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 American on DCA to LAX

The latest arrival of the period was on 12 June 2026, 15 hours 45 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on three of the five worst days.

The latest arrivals of American on DCA to LAX in the period
Date	Arrived late by	Largest filed cause
12 June 2026	15 hours 45 minutes	Carrier
18 November 2025	13 hours 12 minutes	Late-arriving aircraft
21 February 2026	12 hours 47 minutes	Late-arriving aircraft
26 August 2026	8 hours 24 minutes	Carrier
22 August 2026	5 hours 7 minutes	Carrier

Delay causes

Why American runs late on this route

Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 12,000 reported delay minutes.

Carrier
35%
Late-arriving aircraft
33%
National Airspace System
24%
Extreme weather
8%
Security
0%

The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,181 of the 12,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 11,834 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 82.5% on time here.

Cancellations sit at 1.24% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 1.92%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

7.0% 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 a little over 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 80.5% on time across 728 flights, 3 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 3 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 728 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 LAX

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 728 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 77.3% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 705 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