Carrier route record
AAMIA→DCA
American Airlines · Miami to Washington
- Flights
- 3,555
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 90%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on MIA 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 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 3,555 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on MIA 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
75.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,461 completed flights
Avg delay
69 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.22%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
75.9%
Every carrier on MIA to DCA, 3,954 flights
These figures cover 3,555 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.9% 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 MIA to DCA
American flew 3,555 of the 3,954 flights on MIA to DCA, most of the route. Its 75.7% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 75.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 100.0% to Republic at 65.7%. Three 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 1 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 363 | 78.9% | 73 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 3,555 | 75.7% | 69 min | 2.22% | B |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 35 | 65.7% | 81 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Flight by flight
American flight numbers on MIA to DCA
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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 28 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am362 flights90.8%
- 8am–11am707 flights88.0%
- 11am–2pm447 flights77.5%
- 2pm–5pm616 flights67.9%
- 5pm–8pm720 flights62.4%
- 8pm–5am703 flights74.5%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 62.4% on time, against 90.8% 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 720 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on MIA to DCA through the year
July is the worst month at 63.9% on time, 17 points below April, the best at 81.3%. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 308 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 81.1% on time and Friday the weakest at 70.7%, a spread of 10 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on MIA to DCA runs when it is late
American on MIA to DCA often beats the schedule: 1,073 of 3,461 completed flights, 31%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 840 late arrivals split 265 under half an hour, 267 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 308 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early1,073 flights31.0%
- Within 15 min1,548 flights44.7%
- 15–29 min late265 flights7.7%
- 30–59 min late267 flights7.7%
- 1–2 hours late185 flights5.3%
- 2+ hours late123 flights3.6%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 3,461 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
179 of 887 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 20% of them. 132 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on MIA to DCA
The latest arrival of the period was on 2 May 2026, 12 hours behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 2 May 2026 | 12 hours | Carrier |
| 22 June 2026 | 10 hours 52 minutes | Carrier |
| 15 February 2026 | 9 hours 6 minutes | Carrier |
| 20 March 2026 | 7 hours 48 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 10 July 2026 | 7 hours 36 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
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 58,000 reported delay minutes.
- 39%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
39% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 58,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 58,114 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 90.8% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.22% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.42%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
8.9% 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.
The 919 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 77.7% on time across 3,555 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.
The sample behind these figures is 3,555 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.
What to do with this
Booking American on MIA to DCA
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 81.3% on time and July 63.9%, a swing of 17 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 3,461 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- MIA to DCA, every carrier
- American on DCA to MIA, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on MIA to DCA78.9%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Miami International (MIA) delay statistics
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.