Carrier route record

ASLAX→DCA

Alaska Airlines · Los Angeles to Washington

Flights: 364
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 25%
Carriers: 3

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Alaska Airlines.

Alaska on LAX to DCA sits in the middle of the pack with a B+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 364 flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Alaska on LAX to DCA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

75.5%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 359 completed flights

Avg delay

74 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.82%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

80.1%

Every carrier on LAX to DCA, 1,457 flights

These figures cover 364 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.9% 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

Alaska against every carrier on LAX to DCA

Alaska flew 364 of the 1,457 flights on LAX to DCA, about 25% of it. Its 75.5% on time is 5 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 80.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 82.0% to Alaska at 75.5%. 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.

On-time performance by carrier on LAX to DCA
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
American Airlines	730	82.0%	66 min	1.10%	B
Delta Air Linesthin sample	363	81.0%	100 min	1.93%	B
Alaska Airlines (this page)thin sample	364	75.5%	74 min	0.82%	B+

Flight by flight

Alaska flight numbers on LAX to DCA

AS 613:3175.7% · 363 flights

Departure window

When Alaska runs best on this route

Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 364 flights.

There are not enough flights in each departure window to split Alaska's LAX to DCA record by time of day without the percentages moving on noise. The headline rate of 75.5% is the reliable figure here.

Across the year

Alaska on LAX to DCA through the year

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.April best, July worst

July is the worst month at 50.0% on time, 40 points below April, the best at 90.0%. 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 31 flights.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 88.2% on time and Wednesday the weakest at 61.5%. 27 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why Alaska runs late on this route

One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 56% of the 6,532 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.

National Airspace System
56%
Late-arriving aircraft
25%
Carrier
19%
Extreme weather
0%

56% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 3,687 minutes out of 6,532, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 6,532 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.82%, below the national 1.81% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.

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. 10.9% 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 2,311 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 66.5% on time across 364 flights, 9 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 9 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 364 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 Alaska on LAX to DCA

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 364 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 75.5% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 359 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

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.

Key figures