Route reliability record
DCA→ROC
Washington to Rochester
- Flights
- 1,032
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 296 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 6.1% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about two flights in three 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 1,032 DCA to ROC flights, with a median arrival 1 minute late.
Best time to fly DCA to ROC: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 77.4% of the time and Saturday flights 76.4%, against 67.9% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 9 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 94 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
67.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 968 completed flights
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
6.10%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
64.9% on time across 820 flights
These figures cover 1,032 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 14.2% 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 ROC
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 | 58 | 89.7% | 26 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 154 | 75.0% | 86 min | 6.49% | B− |
| PSA Airlines | 820 | 64.9% | 77 min | 6.46% | 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.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Washington to Rochester
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. 3 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. BWI → BUFBaltimore to Buffalo | Southwest Airlines | 74.3% | 75.9% | 2.14% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 2. BWI → ROCBaltimore to Rochester | Southwest Airlines | 73.4% | 74.8% | 1.81% | 11am–2pm, Fri | — |
| 3. DCA → ROCWashington to Rochester | PSA Airlines | 60.7% | 64.9% | 6.46% | 8am–11am, Sat | — |
| 4. DCA → BUFWashington to Buffalo | PSA Airlines | 57.9% | 61.8% | 6.37% | 11am–2pm, Thu | — |
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 18 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am362 flights77.4%
- 11am–2pm2 flights—
- 2pm–5pm355 flights59.0%
- 5pm–8pm5 flights—
- 8pm–5am308 flights67.0%
Scale runs 50% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 77.4% of the time, against 59.0% for the afternoon window. That is 18 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 362 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DCA to ROC 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 ROC, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 77.4% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 59.0%, a wide gap of 18.4 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am77.4%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2–5pm59.0%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am67.0%
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 28 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 51.3% on time, 28 points below October, the best at 79.5%. 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. August was the busiest month here, with 92 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 76.4% on time and Thursday the weakest at 62.5%, a spread of 14 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 57% of the 24,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 57%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%Carrier
- 10%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
57% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 24,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 23,938 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 77.4% on time here.
Cancellations run at 6.10%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in fifteen 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
14.2% 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 296 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 runs 67.0% on time across 1,033 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 1,032 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 ROC after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 6.10% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over 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. 968 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DCA to ROC questions
How often is DCA to ROC delayed?
About one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 32.1% of the 1,032 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is DCA to ROC compared with the rest of the country?
67.9% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 9 points against it. That is worth a C− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on DCA to ROC?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 77.4% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 59.0%, 18 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 ROC?
July is the weakest month at 51.3% on time, compared with 79.5% in October. Across the year that is 28 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
- ROC to DCA — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on DCA to ROC75.0%
- PSA Airlines on DCA to ROC64.9%
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- ORD to ROC, a related route73.3%
- DCA to ORD, a related route73.8%
- Envoy Air on-time record89.7%
- Republic Airways on-time record75.0%
- PSA Airlines on-time record64.9%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DCA to ROC and ROC to DCA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed DCA to ROC’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.