Carrier route record
AAPBI→DCA
American Airlines · West Palm Beach to Washington
- Flights
- 921
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 54%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on PBI to DCA sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 921 flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so American on PBI to DCA runs 4 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 44 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
72.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 899 completed flights
Avg delay
97 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.95%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
69.6%
Every carrier on PBI to DCA, 1,690 flights
These figures cover 921 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.3% 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 PBI to DCA
American flew 921 of the 1,690 flights on PBI to DCA, most of the route. Its 72.9% on time is 3 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 69.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 77.3% to JetBlue at 64.4%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 76 | 77.3% | 54 min | 1.32% | B |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 4 | 75.0% | 120 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 921 | 72.9% | 97 min | 1.95% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 689 | 64.4% | 86 min | 2.32% | D |
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 28 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am155 flights88.3%
- 11am–2pm285 flights73.3%
- 2pm–5pm122 flights60.0%
- 5pm–8pm220 flights69.4%
- 8pm–5am139 flights70.7%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 88.3% of the time, against 60.0% for the afternoon window. That is 28 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 285 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on PBI to DCA through the year
May is the best month on the calendar at 84.5% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. January was the busiest month here, with 124 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 63.4%, a spread of 18 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on PBI to DCA runs when it is late
American on PBI to DCA often beats the schedule: 254 of 899 completed flights, 28%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 244 late arrivals split 63 under half an hour, 70 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 111 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early254 flights28.3%
- Within 15 min401 flights44.6%
- 15–29 min late63 flights7.0%
- 30–59 min late70 flights7.8%
- 1–2 hours late59 flights6.6%
- 2+ hours late52 flights5.8%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 899 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
36 of 247 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 15% of them. 33 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on PBI to DCA
The latest arrival of the period was on 6 May 2026, 28 hours 59 minutes 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 6 May 2026 | 28 hours 59 minutes | Carrier |
| 16 November 2025 | 24 hours 25 minutes | Carrier |
| 8 May 2026 | 7 hours 49 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 12 June 2026 | 6 hours 38 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 6 July 2026 | 6 hours 36 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 24,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
56% 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 50 to one. The split is drawn from 23,563 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 88.3% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.95% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.43%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
12.3% 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 857 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 76.8% on time across 920 flights, 4 points above 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 4 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 921 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 PBI to DCA
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 921 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 72.9% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 899 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- PBI to DCA, every carrier
- American on DCA to PBI, the return leg
- JetBlue Airways on PBI to DCA64.4%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Palm Beach International (PBI) 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.