Carrier route record
AADCA→SYR
American Airlines · Washington to Syracuse
- Flights
- 221
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 21%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on DCA to SYR sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 6 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 221 flights, with a median arrival 3 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so American on DCA to SYR runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 55 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
72.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 215 completed flights
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.71%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
68.0%
Every carrier on DCA to SYR, 1,029 flights
These figures cover 221 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.6% 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
American against every carrier on DCA to SYR
American flew 221 of the 1,029 flights on DCA to SYR, about 21% of it. Its 72.1% on time is 4 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 68.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 72.1% to Envoy at 55.6%. Two 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 221 | 72.1% | 76 min | 2.71% | C |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 178 | 69.5% | 59 min | 6.18% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 541 | 67.8% | 69 min | 5.55% | C− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 89 | 55.6% | 96 min | 8.99% | D− |
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 22 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am104 flights80.0%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm85 flights59.0%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am32 flights81.2%
Scale runs 50% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is the strongest at 81.2% on time. The full set of windows spans 22 points.
Across the year
American on DCA to SYR through the year
- Jul–Sep 202557 flights63.6%
- Oct–Dec 202549 flights65.3%
- Jan–Mar 202678 flights78.4%
- Apr–Jun 202637 flights81.1%
Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 72.1% on time across 221 flights.
American on DCA to SYR did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 81.1% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2025 at 63.6%, a swing of 17 points on roughly 55 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 79.4% on time and Thursday the weakest at 54.3%. 25 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 73% of the 4,581 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.
- 73%Late-arriving aircraft
- 15%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
73% 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 4,581 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 73 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 4,581 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.71%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 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 costs
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.6% 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 298 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 8pm–5am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 64.8% on time across 221 flights, 7 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 7 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 221 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 American on DCA to SYR
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 221 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 72.1% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 215 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to SYR, every carrier
- American on SYR to DCA, the return leg
- Republic Airways on DCA to SYR69.5%
- PSA Airlines on DCA to SYR67.8%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.