Route reliability record
DCA→MYR
Washington to Myrtle Beach
- Flights
- 754
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 372 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.4% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 754 DCA to MYR flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
Best time to fly DCA to MYR: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Monday. Flights in that window arrived on time 80.9% of the time and Monday flights 82.8%, against 76.0% 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
76.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 713 completed flights
Avg delay
64 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.44%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
76.4% on time across 583 flights
These figures cover 754 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
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to MYR
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 Airlinesthin sample | 3 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 143 | 77.8% | 40 min | 5.59% | B− |
| PSA Airlines | 583 | 76.4% | 69 min | 5.49% | B− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 25 | 54.2% | 78 min | 4.00% | F− |
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 Myrtle Beach
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. 1 of the top 2 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. BWI → MYRBaltimore to Myrtle Beach | Southwest Airlines | 78.8% | 79.9% | 1.35% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 2. DCA → MYRWashington to Myrtle Beach | PSA Airlines | 72.2% | 76.4% | 5.49% | 8am–11am, Mon | — |
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 24 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1 flights—
- 8am–11am458 flights80.9%
- 11am–2pm128 flights77.3%
- 2pm–5pm89 flights65.9%
- 5pm–8pm78 flights57.1%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 50% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 57.1% on time, against 80.9% for the 8am–11am 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 458 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DCA to MYR 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 MYR, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 80.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 57.1%, a wide gap of 23.8 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am80.9%
- 11am–2pm77.3%
- 2–5pm65.9%
- 5–8pm57.1%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 31 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.
July is the worst month at 58.7% on time, 31 points below May, the best at 89.6%. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 68 flights.
Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 82.8% on time and Thursday the weakest at 70.3%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 11,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%National Airspace System
- 17%Carrier
- 8%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
56% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 11,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 10,965 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 80.9% on time here.
Cancellations run at 5.44%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in twenty 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
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 372 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 8am–11am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 70.6% on time across 753 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.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 754 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in MYR after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.44% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 713 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DCA to MYR questions
How often is DCA to MYR delayed?
About 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 24.0% of the 754 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
How reliable is DCA to MYR compared with the rest of the country?
76.0% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of about 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 MYR?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 80.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 57.1%, 24 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 July delays on DCA to MYR?
July is the weakest month at 58.7% on time, compared with 89.6% in May. Across the year that is 31 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
- MYR to DCA — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on DCA to MYR77.8%
- PSA Airlines on DCA to MYR76.4%
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- CLT to MYR, a related route76.6%
- DCA to ORD, a related route73.8%
- American Airlines on-time record100.0%
- Republic Airways on-time record77.8%
- PSA Airlines on-time record76.4%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DCA to MYR and MYR to DCA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed DCA to MYR’s on-time badge on your site
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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.