Carrier route record
AADCA→MIA
American Airlines · Washington to Miami
- Flights
- 3,555
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 90%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on DCA to MIA 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 3,555 flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on DCA to MIA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,463 completed flights
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.28%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
76.9%
Every carrier on DCA to MIA, 3,954 flights
These figures cover 3,555 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on DCA to MIA
American flew 3,555 of the 3,954 flights on DCA to MIA, most of the route. Its 77.7% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 76.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 100.0% to Republic at 57.1%. Three 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.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 1 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 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+ |
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 31 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am978 flights92.9%
- 8am–11am662 flights83.4%
- 11am–2pm498 flights72.4%
- 2pm–5pm346 flights73.2%
- 5pm–8pm723 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.
Across the year
American on DCA to MIA through the year
Delays peak in September, when the on-time rate falls to 68.5%. February is the strongest month at 83.3%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 15 points. May was the busiest month here, with 310 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 83.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 69.2%, a spread of 14 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on DCA to MIA runs when it is late
American on DCA to MIA often beats the schedule: 1,400 of 3,463 completed flights, 40%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 772 late arrivals split 232 under half an hour, 253 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 287 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early1,400 flights40.4%
- Within 15 min1,291 flights37.3%
- 15–29 min late232 flights6.7%
- 30–59 min late253 flights7.3%
- 1–2 hours late169 flights4.9%
- 2+ hours late118 flights3.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 3,463 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
179 of 766 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 23% of them. In the other direction, 185 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 MIA.
The worst days
Worst days for American on DCA to MIA
The latest arrival of the period was on 15 February 2026, 28 hours 31 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 15 February 2026 | 28 hours 31 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 20 April 2026 | 23 hours 30 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 14 December 2025 | 15 hours 20 minutes | Carrier |
| 19 February 2026 | 14 hours 56 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 24 July 2026 | 13 hours 2 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 51% of the 59,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
51% 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 20 to one. The split is drawn from 58,732 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 2.28% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.31%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
8.3% 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 75.7% on time across 3,555 flights, within 2 points 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 3,555 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.
What to do with this
Booking American on DCA to MIA
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 83.3% on time and September 68.5%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of September before you think about anything else. 3,463 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to MIA, every carrier
- American on MIA to DCA, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on DCA to MIA70.9%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Miami International (MIA) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.