Route reliability record
DCA→MIA
Washington to Miami
- Flights
- 3,954
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 919 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route 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 3,954 DCA to MIA flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Best time to fly DCA to MIA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.9% of the time and Tuesday flights 82.9%, against 76.9% 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
76.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,853 completed flights
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.12%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
77.7% on time across 3,555 flights
These figures cover 3,954 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to MIA
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 1 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 3,555 | 77.7% | 76 min | 2.28% | B |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 363 | 70.9% | 75 min | 0.83% | C+ |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 35 | 57.1% | 75 min | 0.00% | D+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on DCA to MIA
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.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Washington to Miami
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 → FLLWashington to Fort Lauderdale | United Airlines | 83.0% | 83.5% | 0.57% | 8am–11am, Wed | UA 1825 08:15 |
| 2. BWI → MIABaltimore to Miami | American Airlines | 78.8% | 80.6% | 2.29% | 5am–8am, Thu | AA 1183 06:00 |
| 3. DCA → MIAWashington to Miami | American Airlines | 75.9% | 77.7% | 2.28% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 4. BWI → FLLBaltimore to Fort Lauderdale | Southwest Airlines | 74.4% | 75.7% | 1.69% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 5. BWI → FLLBaltimore to Fort Lauderdale | Spirit Airlines | 74.4% | 78.0% | 4.66% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
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 31 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am978 flights92.9%
- 8am–11am678 flights83.2%
- 11am–2pm534 flights72.8%
- 2pm–5pm692 flights70.9%
- 5pm–8pm724 flights62.1%
- 8pm–5am348 flights68.3%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 62.1% on time, against 92.9% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 978 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DCA to MIA 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 MIA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 62.1%, a wide gap of 30.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.9%
- 8–11am83.2%
- 11am–2pm72.8%
- 2–5pm70.9%
- 5–8pm62.1%
- 8pm–5am68.3%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 14 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.
Delays peak in September, when the on-time rate falls to 68.0%. February is the strongest month at 82.2%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 14 points. December was the busiest month here, with 344 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 68.1%, a spread of 15 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 68,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 68,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 19 to one. The split is drawn from 67,553 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 92.9% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.12% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.43%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
8.7% 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.
The 919 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 runs 75.9% on time across 3,954 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.
The sample behind these figures is 3,954 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 MIA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 82.2% on time and September 68.0%, a swing of 14 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of September before you think about anything else. 3,853 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DCA to MIA questions
How often is DCA to MIA delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.1% of the 3,954 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is DCA to MIA compared with the rest of the country?
76.9% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of half a point against it. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on DCA to MIA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 62.1%, 31 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 September delays on DCA to MIA?
September is the weakest month at 68.0% on time, compared with 82.2% in February. Across the year that is 14 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
- MIA to DCA — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Miami International (MIA) delay statistics
- American Airlines on DCA to MIA77.7%
- Delta Air Lines on DCA to MIA70.9%
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- ATL to MIA, a related route71.2%
- DCA to ORD, a related route73.8%
- Envoy Air on-time record100.0%
- American Airlines on-time record77.7%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record70.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. DCA to MIA and MIA 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.