Route reliability record
PNS→DCA
Pensacola to Washington
- Flights
- 1,072
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 816 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.2% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten 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 1,072 PNS to DCA flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes early.
Best time to fly PNS to DCA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 85.4% of the time and Saturday flights 77.4%, against 71.2% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 61 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
71.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,013 completed flights
Avg delay
115 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.22%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
71.5% on time across 940 flights
These figures cover 1,072 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.9% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on PNS to DCA
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 | 63 | 73.3% | 69 min | 4.76% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 940 | 71.5% | 121 min | 4.79% | C− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 69 | 63.9% | 79 min | 11.59% | D− |
Flight by flight
Flights on PNS to DCA
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 23 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am363 flights85.4%
- 8am–11am217 flights66.2%
- 11am–2pm138 flights63.4%
- 2pm–5pm143 flights62.1%
- 5pm–8pm211 flights62.9%
- 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 85.4% of the time, against 62.1% for the afternoon window. That is 23 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 363 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PNS to DCA by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On PNS to DCA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 85.4% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 62.1%, a wide gap of 23.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am85.4%
- 8–11am66.2%
- 11am–2pm63.4%
- 2–5pm62.1%
- 5–8pm62.9%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 15 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
August is the worst month at 64.6% on time, 15 points below September, the best at 79.8%. 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. January was the busiest month here, with 93 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 77.4% on time and Wednesday the weakest at 66.0%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
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 33,000 reported delay minutes.
- 41%Carrier
- 39%Late-arriving aircraft
- 14%National Airspace System
- 6%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 33,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 33,456 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 41%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 14,000 of the 33,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 5.22%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in twenty 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 actually costs
12.9% 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 816 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 65.7% on time across 1,074 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 1,072 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in DCA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.22% 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. 1,013 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PNS to DCA questions
How often is PNS to DCA delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 28.8% of the 1,072 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is PNS to DCA compared with the rest of the country?
71.2% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 6 points against it. That is worth a C− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on PNS to DCA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 85.4% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 62.1%, 23 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are August delays on PNS to DCA?
August is the weakest month at 64.6% on time, compared with 79.8% in September. Across the year that is 15 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to PNS — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- PNS to ATL, a related route88.8%
- BOS to DCA, a related route72.6%
- PNS to CLT, a related route83.5%
- Republic Airways on-time record73.3%
- PSA Airlines on-time record71.5%
- Envoy Air on-time record63.9%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. PNS to DCA and DCA to PNS are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.