Carrier route record
OHMSN→DCA
PSA Airlines · Madison to Washington
- Flights
- 858
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 69%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with PSA Airlines.
PSA on MSN to DCA carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.9% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 858 flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate PSA on MSN 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
74.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 801 completed flights
Avg delay
117 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.94%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
72.9%
Every carrier on MSN to DCA, 1,238 flights
These figures cover 858 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
PSA against every carrier on MSN to DCA
PSA flew 858 of the 1,238 flights on MSN to DCA, most of the route. Its 74.4% on time is 2 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 72.9%. 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 69.4%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 2 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 3 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| PSA Airlines (this page) | 858 | 74.4% | 117 min | 5.94% | C− |
| Republic Airways | 375 | 69.4% | 77 min | 3.47% | 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 PSA runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 21 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am342 flights86.7%
- 8am–11am116 flights65.5%
- 11am–2pm140 flights68.2%
- 2pm–5pm254 flights66.4%
- 5pm–8pm6 flights—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 86.7% of the time, against 65.5% for the morning window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 342 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
PSA on MSN to DCA through the year
July is the worst month at 56.4% on time, 36 points below September, the best at 92.6%. 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. April was the busiest month here, with 83 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 87.9% on time and Wednesday the weakest at 63.6%, a spread of 24 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late PSA on MSN to DCA runs when it is late
PSA on MSN to DCA often beats the schedule: 313 of 801 completed flights, 39%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 205 late arrivals split 41 under half an hour, 67 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 97 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early313 flights39.1%
- Within 15 min283 flights35.3%
- 15–29 min late41 flights5.1%
- 30–59 min late67 flights8.4%
- 1–2 hours late43 flights5.4%
- 2+ hours late54 flights6.7%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 801 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 173 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 17 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 49 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 PSA on MSN to DCA
The latest arrival of the period was on 1 July 2026, 23 hours 37 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). Three of the five worst days fell in June 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 1 July 2026 | 23 hours 37 minutes | Carrier |
| 11 June 2026 | 21 hours 21 minutes | Carrier |
| 10 August 2026 | 19 hours 46 minutes | Carrier |
| 10 June 2026 | 19 hours 3 minutes | Carrier |
| 2 June 2026 | 18 hours 41 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why PSA 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 24,000 reported delay minutes.
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 40%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 24,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 24,031 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 40%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 9,593 of the 24,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 5.94%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in fifteen 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 costs
12.1% 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 707 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 66.5% on time across 859 flights, 8 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 8 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 858 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 PSA on MSN to DCA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.94% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 801 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
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.