Carrier route record
AADCA→TPA
American Airlines · Washington to Tampa
- Flights
- 1,524
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 68%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on DCA to TPA 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 77.3%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 1,524 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so American on DCA to TPA runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 60 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
71.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,479 completed flights
Avg delay
84 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.76%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
73.9%
Every carrier on DCA to TPA, 2,248 flights
These figures cover 1,524 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on DCA to TPA
American flew 1,524 of the 2,248 flights on DCA to TPA, most of the route. Its 71.3% on time is 3 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 73.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 92.3% to American at 71.3%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 26 | 92.3% | 27 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 698 | 78.8% | 67 min | 2.44% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 1,524 | 71.3% | 84 min | 2.76% | C |
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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 42 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am77 flights96.0%
- 8am–11am640 flights82.4%
- 11am–2pm82 flights80.0%
- 2pm–5pm248 flights58.0%
- 5pm–8pm359 flights54.4%
- 8pm–5am118 flights67.9%
Scale runs 45% to 100%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 54.4% on time, against 96.0% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 640 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on DCA to TPA through the year
August is the worst month at 63.3% on time, 15 points below January, the best at 78.3%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 151 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 78.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 64.4%, a spread of 14 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on DCA to TPA runs when it is late
American on DCA to TPA often beats the schedule: 448 of 1,479 completed flights, 30%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 424 late arrivals split 108 under half an hour, 129 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 187 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early448 flights30.3%
- Within 15 min607 flights41.0%
- 15–29 min late108 flights7.3%
- 30–59 min late129 flights8.7%
- 1–2 hours late93 flights6.3%
- 2+ hours late94 flights6.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 1,479 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
50 of 389 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 13% of them. In the other direction, 85 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 TPA.
The worst days
Worst days for American on DCA to TPA
The latest arrival of the period was on 22 May 2026, 12 hours 24 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. Three of the five worst days fell in May 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 22 May 2026 | 12 hours 24 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 20 March 2026 | 8 hours 59 minutes | Carrier |
| 24 May 2026 | 7 hours 12 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 4 May 2026 | 6 hours 54 minutes | Carrier |
| 27 January 2026 | 6 hours 24 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 60% of the 35,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 60%Late-arriving aircraft
- 21%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
60% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 35,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 21 to one. The split is drawn from 35,422 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 96.0% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.76%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
12.6% 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.
The 814 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 74.3% on time across 1,524 flights, 3 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 3 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,524 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 American on DCA to TPA
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 78.3% on time and August 63.3%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 1,479 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to TPA, every carrier
- American on TPA to DCA, the return leg
- Southwest Airlines on DCA to TPA78.8%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Tampa International (TPA) 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.