Route reliability record
DCA→PVD
Washington to Providence
- Flights
- 2,452
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 356 mi
- Carriers
- 5
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 2,452 flights, of which American Airlines flew 452 at 76.7% on time.
American Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 76.7% on time across 452 flights.
Key figures
On time
72.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,344 completed flights
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.32%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
American
76.7% on time across 452 flights
These figures cover 2,452 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to PVD
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 76.7% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 69.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,061 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 452 | 76.7% | 60 min | 1.99% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 672 | 74.7% | 71 min | 1.64% | C |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 71 | 73.9% | 72 min | 2.82% | C |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 196 | 73.4% | 63 min | 6.12% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,061 | 69.6% | 68 min | 6.79% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.8% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
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 20 points, against 7 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am209 flights83.1%
- 8am–11am515 flights82.5%
- 11am–2pm540 flights79.3%
- 2pm–5pm446 flights63.0%
- 5pm–8pm407 flights62.6%
- 8pm–5am335 flights65.3%
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 62.6% on time, against 83.1% 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 540 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 19 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 62.3% on time, 19 points below September, the best at 81.4%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 230 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 78.4% on time and Monday the weakest at 68.6%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 43,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
56% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 43,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 42,604 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 83.1% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.32%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 356 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 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 73.1% on time across 2,453 flights, within half 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 2,452 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 this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.32% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 2,344 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DCA to PVD questions
How often is DCA to PVD delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 27.2% of the 2,452 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to PVD?
American Airlines leads at 76.7% on time across 452 flights. PSA Airlines 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 PVD?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 83.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 62.6%, 20 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 PVD?
July is the weakest month at 62.3% on time, compared with 81.4% in September. Across the year that is 19 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
- PVD to DCA — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- American Airlines on-time record76.7%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record74.7%
- Envoy Air on-time record73.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Direction matters. DCA to PVD and PVD to DCA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.