Route reliability record
DCA→PVD
Washington to Providence
- Flights
- 2,426
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 356 mi
- Carriers
- 5
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% 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 2,426 DCA to PVD flights, of which American Airlines flew 450 at 77.0% on time.
Best time to fly DCA to PVD: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 82.9% of the time and Saturday flights 78.1%, against 72.5% for the route overall.
American Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 77.0% on time across 450 flights.
Key figures
On time
72.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,298 completed flights
Avg delay
68 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.28%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
77.0% on time across 450 flights
These figures cover 2,426 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
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 77.0% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 69.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,062 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 450 | 77.0% | 62 min | 3.33% | B− |
| Southwest Airlines | 670 | 74.7% | 64 min | 2.54% | C |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 202 | 73.8% | 65 min | 9.41% | C− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 42 | 70.7% | 66 min | 2.38% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 1,062 | 69.0% | 72 min | 7.16% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 7.2% 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.
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 Providence
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. BWI → PVDBaltimore to Providence | Southwest Airlines | 77.8% | 79.6% | 2.28% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 2. BWI → BOSBaltimore to Boston | Republic Airways | 77.2% | 80.5% | 4.09% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 5703 10:54 |
| 3. IAD → BOSWashington to Boston | United Airlines | 75.5% | 77.1% | 2.07% | 8am–11am, Sat (route) | UA 641 08:35 |
| 4. DCA → PVDWashington to Providence | American Airlines | 74.4% | 77.0% | 3.33% | 8am–11am, Tue | — |
| 5. DCA → BOSWashington to Boston | Republic Airways | 73.5% | 76.9% | 4.40% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 5710 06:00 |
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 8 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am163 flights82.9%
- 8am–11am513 flights82.6%
- 11am–2pm541 flights78.3%
- 2pm–5pm448 flights60.4%
- 5pm–8pm421 flights63.6%
- 8pm–5am340 flights69.1%
Scale runs 50% to 90%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 82.9% of the time, against 60.4% 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 541 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DCA to PVD 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 PVD, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 82.9% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 60.4%, a wide gap of 22.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am82.9%
- 8–11am82.6%
- 11am–2pm78.3%
- 2–5pm60.4%
- 5–8pm63.6%
- 8pm–5am69.1%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%.
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.
July is the worst month at 64.4% on time, 17 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. September was the busiest month here, with 222 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 78.1% on time and Monday the weakest at 69.6%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 55% of the 43,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 55%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
55% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 43,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 42,732 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 82.9% on time here.
Cancellations run at 5.28%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about 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
9.8% 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.
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 71.0% on time across 2,426 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 2,426 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 PVD after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.28% 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. 2,298 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 arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 27.5% of the 2,426 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to PVD?
American Airlines leads at 77.0% on time across 450 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 69.0%, a gap of 8 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 82.9% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 60.4%, 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 July delays on DCA to PVD?
July is the weakest month at 64.4% on time, compared with 81.4% in September. 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
- PVD to DCA — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- American Airlines on DCA to PVD77.0%
- Southwest Airlines on DCA to PVD74.7%
- Republic Airways on DCA to PVD73.8%
- PSA Airlines on DCA to PVD69.0%
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- BWI to PVD, a related route79.6%
- DCA to ORD, a related route73.8%
- American Airlines on-time record77.0%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record74.7%
- Republic Airways on-time record73.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.
Embed DCA to PVD’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.