Route reliability record
PWM→DCA
Portland to Washington
- Flights
- 1,153
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 482 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.7% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% 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 1,153 PWM to DCA flights, of which American Airlines flew 655 at 76.1% on time.
Best time to fly PWM to DCA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.6% of the time and Tuesday flights 80.7%, against 74.5% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
74.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,104 completed flights
Avg delay
105 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.73%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
American
76.1% on time across 655 flights
These figures cover 1,153 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on PWM to DCA
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 76.1% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 70.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 394 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 100 | 81.1% | 79 min | 5.00% | B− |
| American Airlines | 655 | 76.1% | 112 min | 2.29% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 394 | 70.1% | 102 min | 5.84% | C− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 4 | 50.0% | 22 min | 0.00% | F+ |
PSA Airlines cancels 5.8% 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.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Portland to Washington
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 1 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PWM → BWIPortland to Baltimore | Southwest Airlines | 81.1% | 81.8% | 0.89% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 2. PWM → DCAPortland to Washington | American Airlines | 74.4% | 76.1% | 2.29% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 3. PWM → DCAPortland to Washington | PSA Airlines | 66.0% | 70.1% | 5.84% | 5am–8am, Sun | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
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 28 points, against 6 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am364 flights88.6%
- 8am–11am49 flights72.9%
- 11am–2pm320 flights72.5%
- 2pm–5pm80 flights60.3%
- 5pm–8pm340 flights64.4%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.6% of the time, against 60.3% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 364 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 18 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.
January is the weak month at 65.1% on time, against 82.6% in November. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. October was the busiest month here, with 121 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.7%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 30,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 17%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 30,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 29,680 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 88.6% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.73%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 10.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 482 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 68.8% on time across 1,153 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.
The sample behind these figures is 1,153 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.
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 3.73% 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. 1,104 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PWM to DCA questions
How often is PWM to DCA delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 25.5% of the 1,153 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on PWM to DCA?
American Airlines leads at 76.1% on time across 655 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 70.1%, a gap of 6 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on PWM to DCA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.6% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 60.3%, 28 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 January delays on PWM to DCA?
January is the weakest month at 65.1% on time, compared with 82.6% in November. Across the year that is 18 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 PWM — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on PWM to DCA81.1%
- American Airlines on PWM to DCA76.1%
- PSA Airlines on PWM to DCA70.1%
- PWM to ORD, a related route77.2%
- BOS to DCA, a related route74.0%
- PWM to BWI, a related route81.8%
- Republic Airways on-time record81.1%
- American Airlines on-time record76.1%
- PSA Airlines on-time record70.1%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. PWM to DCA and DCA to PWM 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.