Carrier route record
AALAX→IAD
American Airlines · Los Angeles to Washington
- Flights
- 120
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 5%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on LAX to IAD lands a B+, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 120 flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on LAX to IAD from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
76.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 119 completed flights
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.00%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
87.5%
Every carrier on LAX to IAD, 2,461 flights
These figures cover 120 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 4 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on LAX to IAD
American flew 120 of the 2,461 flights on LAX to IAD, about 5% of it. Its 76.5% on time is 11 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 87.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 88.0% to American at 76.5%.
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 | 2,341 | 88.0% | 54 min | 0.56% | A+ |
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 120 | 76.5% | 71 min | 0.00% | B+ |
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Departure window
When American 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 120 flights.
There are not enough flights in each departure window to split American's LAX to IAD record by time of day without the percentages moving on noise. The headline rate of 76.5% is the reliable figure here.
Across the year
American on LAX to IAD through the year
- Apr–Jun 202685 flights77.6%
- Jul–Sep 202635 flights73.5%
Scale runs 65% to 85%.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 76.5% on time across 120 flights.
Split by quarter, American on LAX to IAD logged 85 flights in Apr–Jun 2026 and 35 flights in Jul–Sep 2026. Fewer than three of those quarters carried the 30 completed flights this site needs before printing a rate, so the 76.5% annual figure is the one to use.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on LAX to IAD runs when it is late
American on LAX to IAD often beats the schedule: 33 of 119 completed flights, 28%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 28 late arrivals split 11 under half an hour, 8 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 9 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early33 flights27.7%
- Within 15 min58 flights48.7%
- 15–29 min late11 flights9.2%
- 30–59 min late8 flights6.7%
- 1–2 hours late5 flights4.2%
- 2+ hours late4 flights3.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 119 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
5 of 28 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 18% of them. 5 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on LAX to IAD
The latest arrival of the period was on 17 April 2026, 9 hours 50 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 17 April 2026 | 9 hours 50 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 28 May 2026 | 2 hours 52 minutes | Carrier |
| 10 April 2026 | 2 hours 42 minutes | Carrier |
| 5 July 2026 | 2 hours | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 1 August 2026 | 1 hour 47 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 1,998 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 44%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 1%Security
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 1,998 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 44 to one. The split is drawn from 1,998 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 44%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 872 of the 1,998 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.00%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Almost no flights are called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
7.6% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,288 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 runs 75.0% on time across 120 flights, within 2 points 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. 120 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 LAX to IAD
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 120 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 76.5% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 119 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- LAX to IAD, every carrier
- American on IAD to LAX, the return leg
- United Airlines on LAX to IAD88.0%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Washington Dulles International (IAD) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- How to read this site: grades, sample sizes, and honest caveats
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.