Carrier route record
AAJAX→DCA
American Airlines · Jacksonville to Washington
- Flights
- 928
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 65%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on JAX to DCA 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 a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 928 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on JAX to DCA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
73.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 905 completed flights
Avg delay
69 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.16%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
73.1%
Every carrier on JAX to DCA, 1,437 flights
These figures cover 928 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.4% 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 JAX to DCA
American flew 928 of the 1,437 flights on JAX to DCA, most of the route. Its 73.8% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 73.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 78.7% to PSA at 68.7%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 154 | 78.7% | 133 min | 2.60% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 928 | 73.8% | 69 min | 2.16% | C |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 355 | 68.7% | 134 min | 4.51% | C− |
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 26 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am252 flights87.1%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm164 flights87.0%
- 2pm–5pm185 flights64.1%
- 5pm–8pm291 flights61.3%
- 8pm–5am36 flights69.4%
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.3% on time, against 87.1% 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 291 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on JAX to DCA through the year
April is the best month on the calendar at 79.5% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. October was the busiest month here, with 118 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 85.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 66.9%, a spread of 18 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on JAX to DCA runs when it is late
American on JAX to DCA often beats the schedule: 279 of 905 completed flights, 31%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 237 late arrivals split 65 under half an hour, 78 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 94 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early279 flights30.8%
- Within 15 min389 flights43.0%
- 15–29 min late65 flights7.2%
- 30–59 min late78 flights8.6%
- 1–2 hours late62 flights6.9%
- 2+ hours late32 flights3.5%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 905 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
30 of 219 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 14% of them. In the other direction, 48 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 DCA.
The worst days
Worst days for American on JAX to DCA
The latest arrival of the period was on 19 September 2025, 8 hours 8 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 19 September 2025 | 8 hours 8 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 19 March 2026 | 6 hours 30 minutes | Carrier |
| 24 May 2026 | 5 hours 55 minutes | Carrier |
| 29 December 2025 | 5 hours 35 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 24 September 2025 | 4 hours 59 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 52% of the 16,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
52% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 16,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 to one. The split is drawn from 16,429 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 87.1% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.16% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.32%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
10.4% 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 72.7% on time across 926 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 928 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 JAX to DCA
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 928 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 73.8% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 905 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- JAX to DCA, every carrier
- American on DCA to JAX, the return leg
- Republic Airways on JAX to DCA78.7%
- PSA Airlines on JAX to DCA68.7%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Jacksonville International (JAX) delay statistics
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) 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.