Carrier route record
AADFW→IAD
American Airlines · Dallas-Fort Worth to Washington
- Flights
- 849
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 43%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on DFW to IAD sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 7 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 849 flights, with a median arrival 2 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so American on DFW to IAD runs 7 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 66 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
70.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 827 completed flights
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.47%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
77.4%
Every carrier on DFW to IAD, 1,962 flights
These figures cover 849 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.3% 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 DFW to IAD
American flew 849 of the 1,962 flights on DFW to IAD, about 43% of it. Its 70.7% on time is 7 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 77.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 83.6% to Republic 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 929 | 83.6% | 80 min | 0.86% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 175 | 77.6% | 87 min | 2.86% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 849 | 70.7% | 74 min | 2.47% | C |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 9 | 55.6% | 104 min | 0.00% | 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.
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 23 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am122 flights86.1%
- 8am–11am27 flights—
- 11am–2pm259 flights73.0%
- 2pm–5pm103 flights63.4%
- 5pm–8pm337 flights65.1%
- 8pm–5am1 flights—
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 86.1% of the time, against 63.4% 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 337 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on DFW to IAD through the year
September is the best month on the calendar at 84.9% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. June was the busiest month here, with 90 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 62.0%, a spread of 18 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on DFW to IAD runs when it is late
The 242 late arrivals split 69 under half an hour, 71 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 102 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early188 flights22.7%
- Within 15 min397 flights48.0%
- 15–29 min late69 flights8.3%
- 30–59 min late71 flights8.6%
- 1–2 hours late62 flights7.5%
- 2+ hours late40 flights4.8%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 827 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
55 of 274 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 20% of them. 23 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on DFW to IAD
The latest arrival of the period was on 7 March 2026, 15 hours 50 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage).
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 7 March 2026 | 15 hours 50 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 28 July 2026 | 6 hours 8 minutes | Carrier |
| 24 September 2025 | 5 hours 29 minutes | Carrier |
| 19 June 2026 | 4 hours 39 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 21 June 2026 | 4 hours 33 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 18,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
47% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 18,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 17,776 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 86.1% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.47% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.12%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
12.3% 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 1,172 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 74.4% on time across 849 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. 849 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 DFW to IAD
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 849 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 70.7% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 827 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DFW to IAD, every carrier
- American on IAD to DFW, the return leg
- United Airlines on DFW to IAD83.6%
- Frontier Airlines on DFW to IAD77.6%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- Washington Dulles International (IAD) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
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.