Carrier route record
AAPVD→DCA
American Airlines · Providence to Washington
- Flights
- 450
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 19%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on PVD 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, 7 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 450 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Southwest Airlines, flew 670 at 76.8% on time.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so American on PVD to DCA runs 7 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 65 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
70.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 435 completed flights
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.33%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
71.0%
Every carrier on PVD to DCA, 2,426 flights
These figures cover 450 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.3% 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 PVD to DCA
American flew 450 of the 2,426 flights on PVD to DCA, about 19% of it. Its 70.8% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 71.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number four of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 85.7% to PSA at 66.1%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Southwest Airlines arrives on time 76.8% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 66.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,062 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 42 | 85.7% | 23 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 670 | 76.8% | 61 min | 2.09% | B |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 202 | 73.9% | 60 min | 8.42% | C− |
| American Airlines (this page) | 450 | 70.8% | 59 min | 3.33% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,062 | 66.1% | 95 min | 8.29% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 8.3% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
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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 30 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am74 flights88.9%
- 8am–11am19 flights—
- 11am–2pm137 flights69.2%
- 2pm–5pm159 flights64.5%
- 5pm–8pm61 flights58.9%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 58.9% on time, against 88.9% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 159 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on PVD to DCA through the year
- Jul–Sep 202560 flights85.0%
- Oct–Dec 2025113 flights77.0%
- Jan–Mar 2026160 flights63.8%
- Apr–Jun 202662 flights71.0%
- Jul–Sep 202655 flights60.4%
Scale runs 50% to 90%.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 70.8% on time across 450 flights.
American on PVD to DCA did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 85.0% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 60.4%, a swing of 25 points on roughly 90 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 83.3% on time and Friday the weakest at 61.5%, a spread of 22 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on PVD to DCA runs when it is late
The 127 late arrivals split 45 under half an hour, 46 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 36 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early76 flights17.5%
- Within 15 min232 flights53.3%
- 15–29 min late45 flights10.3%
- 30–59 min late46 flights10.6%
- 1–2 hours late18 flights4.1%
- 2+ hours late18 flights4.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 435 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 89 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 6 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 44 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 American on PVD to DCA
The latest arrival of the period was on 20 March 2026, 6 hours 15 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. The same cause led on five of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 20 March 2026 | 6 hours 15 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 26 October 2025 | 4 hours 14 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 25 February 2026 | 4 hours 8 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 27 January 2026 | 3 hours 34 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 28 September 2025 | 3 hours 32 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 57% of the 7,447 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 57%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%National Airspace System
- 7%Carrier
- 4%Extreme weather
57% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 7,447 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. The split is drawn from 7,447 reported delay minutes.
33% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 2,443 minutes out of 7,447, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 3.33%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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
8.3% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 356 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 77.0% on time across 450 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 450 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 PVD to DCA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.33% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; 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. 435 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- PVD to DCA, every carrier
- American on DCA to PVD, the return leg
- Southwest Airlines on PVD to DCA76.8%
- Republic Airways on PVD to DCA73.9%
- PSA Airlines on PVD to DCA66.1%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.