Route reliability record
DCA→PBI
Washington to West Palm Beach
- Flights
- 1,689
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 857 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 1,689 DCA to PBI flights, of which American Airlines flew 920 at 76.8% on time.
Best time to fly DCA to PBI: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.9% of the time and Wednesday flights 81.0%, against 73.9% 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
73.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,648 completed flights
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.01%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
76.8% on time across 920 flights
These figures cover 1,689 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.0% 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 PBI
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 76.8% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 69.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 689 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 76 | 77.6% | 36 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 920 | 76.8% | 76 min | 1.85% | B |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 4 | 75.0% | 122 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 689 | 69.6% | 75 min | 2.47% | C |
American leads JetBlue by 7 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on DCA to PBI
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 West Palm 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. 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 → PBIBaltimore to West Palm Beach | Southwest Airlines | 77.3% | 78.5% | 1.58% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 3. DCA → PBIWashington to West Palm Beach | American Airlines | 75.4% | 76.8% | 1.85% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 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 23 points, against 7 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am366 flights87.9%
- 8am–11am431 flights77.0%
- 11am–2pm141 flights70.6%
- 2pm–5pm394 flights65.2%
- 5pm–8pm357 flights66.7%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 87.9% of the time, against 65.2% for the afternoon window. That is 23 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 431 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DCA to PBI 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 PBI, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 87.9% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 65.2%, a wide gap of 22.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am87.9%
- 8–11am77.0%
- 11am–2pm70.6%
- 2–5pm65.2%
- 5–8pm66.7%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 17 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.
February is the weak month at 66.9% on time, against 83.8% in May. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. January was the busiest month here, with 211 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.0% on time and Thursday the weakest at 66.0%, a spread of 15 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 32,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 1%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 32,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 33 to one. The split is drawn from 31,696 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 87.9% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.01% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.41%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
10.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 857 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 69.6% on time across 1,690 flights, 4 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 4 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,689 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 PBI 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. May runs 83.8% on time and February 66.9%, a swing of 17 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of February before you think about anything else. 1,648 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DCA to PBI questions
How often is DCA to PBI 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 26.1% of the 1,689 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to PBI?
American Airlines leads at 76.8% on time across 920 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 69.6%, a gap of 7 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on DCA to PBI?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.9% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 65.2%, 23 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 February delays on DCA to PBI?
February is the weakest month at 66.9% on time, compared with 83.8% in May. Across the year that is 17 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
- PBI to DCA — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Palm Beach International (PBI) delay statistics
- American Airlines on DCA to PBI76.8%
- JetBlue Airways on DCA to PBI69.6%
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- ATL to PBI, a related route75.8%
- DCA to ORD, a related route73.8%
- Republic Airways on-time record77.6%
- American Airlines on-time record76.8%
- Envoy Air on-time record75.0%
- 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 PBI and PBI 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.