Carrier route record
UADCA→SFO
United Airlines · Washington to San Francisco
- Flights
- 727
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 67%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on DCA to SFO 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 about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 727 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate United on DCA to SFO from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
74.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 721 completed flights
Avg delay
68 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.69%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
71.9%
Every carrier on DCA to SFO, 1,090 flights
These figures cover 727 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
United against every carrier on DCA to SFO
United flew 727 of the 1,090 flights on DCA to SFO, most of the route. Its 74.8% on time is 3 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 71.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 74.8% to Alaska at 66.0%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines (this page) | 727 | 74.8% | 68 min | 0.69% | C+ |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 363 | 66.0% | 60 min | 1.10% | C |
Flight by flight
United flight numbers on DCA to SFO
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Departure window
When United runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 26 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am282 flights87.9%
- 8am–11am81 flights87.7%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm364 flights61.7%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.7% on time, against 87.9% 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 364 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on DCA to SFO through the year
June is the worst month at 55.9% on time, 36 points below March, the best at 91.9%. 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. January was the busiest month here, with 62 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 82.4% on time and Thursday the weakest at 64.1%, a spread of 18 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late United on DCA to SFO runs when it is late
United on DCA to SFO often beats the schedule: 250 of 721 completed flights, 35%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 182 late arrivals split 62 under half an hour, 58 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 62 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early250 flights34.7%
- Within 15 min289 flights40.1%
- 15–29 min late62 flights8.6%
- 30–59 min late58 flights8.0%
- 1–2 hours late33 flights4.6%
- 2+ hours late29 flights4.0%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 721 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
20 of 126 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 16% of them. In the other direction, 76 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at SFO.
The worst days
Worst days for United on DCA to SFO
The latest arrival of the period was on 23 August 2026, 6 hours 46 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The five worst days are spread across August, October, June and April, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 23 August 2026 | 6 hours 46 minutes | Carrier |
| 22 October 2025 | 6 hours 22 minutes | Carrier |
| 27 August 2026 | 5 hours 15 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 11 June 2026 | 5 hours 14 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 11 April 2026 | 5 hours 3 minutes | National Airspace System |
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
National Airspace System accounts for 69% of the 12,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 69%National Airspace System
- 17%Carrier
- 14%Late-arriving aircraft
- 1%Extreme weather
69% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 8,459 minutes out of 12,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 12,307 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.69%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
8.6% 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 2,442 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 78.4% on time across 727 flights, 4 points above 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.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 727 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.
What to do with this
Booking United on DCA to SFO
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 727 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 74.8% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 721 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to SFO, every carrier
- United on SFO to DCA, the return leg
- Alaska Airlines on DCA to SFO66.0%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- San Francisco International (SFO) delay statistics
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
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.