Route reliability record
JAX→DCA
Jacksonville to Washington
- Flights
- 1,437
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 634 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 1,437 JAX to DCA flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
Best time to fly JAX to DCA: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.9% of the time and Saturday flights 80.7%, against 73.1% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 4 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 42 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
73.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,394 completed flights
Avg delay
93 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.78%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
73.8% on time across 928 flights
These figures cover 1,437 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on JAX to DCA
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 | 154 | 78.7% | 133 min | 2.60% | B |
| American Airlines | 928 | 73.8% | 69 min | 2.16% | C |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 355 | 68.7% | 134 min | 4.51% | C− |
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Jacksonville to Washington
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. 2 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. JAX → IADJacksonville to Washington | United Airlines | 90.0% | 91.0% | 1.09% | 8am–11am, Thu (route) | — |
| 2. JAX → BWIJacksonville to Baltimore | Southwest Airlines | 79.3% | 80.2% | 1.08% | 5am–8am, Fri | — |
| 3. JAX → DCAJacksonville to Washington | American Airlines | 72.2% | 73.8% | 2.16% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
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 30 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am349 flights85.8%
- 8am–11am56 flights90.9%
- 11am–2pm357 flights78.7%
- 2pm–5pm335 flights62.0%
- 5pm–8pm291 flights61.3%
- 8pm–5am49 flights66.7%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.3% on time, against 90.9% for the 8am–11am 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 357 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter JAX to DCA 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 JAX to DCA, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 90.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 61.3%, a wide gap of 29.6 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am85.8%
- 8–11am90.9%
- 11am–2pm78.7%
- 2–5pm62.0%
- 5–8pm61.3%
- 8pm–5am66.7%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 20 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.
April is the best month on the calendar at 82.1% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. January was the busiest month here, with 147 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 80.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 66.8%, a spread of 14 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 35,000 reported delay minutes.
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
41% 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 6 to one. The split is drawn from 34,861 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 90.9% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.78%, 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 actually costs
11.3% 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 634 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 runs 73.0% on time across 1,435 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,437 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in DCA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 82.1% on time and November 62.1%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of November before you think about anything else. 1,394 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
JAX to DCA questions
How often is JAX to DCA delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 26.9% of the 1,437 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is JAX to DCA compared with the rest of the country?
73.1% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 4 points against it. That is worth a C on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on JAX to DCA?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 90.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 61.3%, 30 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 November delays on JAX to DCA?
November is the weakest month at 62.1% on time, compared with 82.1% in April. Across the year that is 20 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
- DCA to JAX — the return legseparate record
- Jacksonville International (JAX) delay statistics
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on JAX to DCA78.7%
- American Airlines on JAX to DCA73.8%
- PSA Airlines on JAX to DCA68.7%
- JAX to ATL, a related route83.8%
- BOS to DCA, a related route72.6%
- JAX to ORD, a related route76.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record78.7%
- American Airlines on-time record73.8%
- PSA Airlines on-time record68.7%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. JAX to DCA and DCA to JAX are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.