Carrier route record

OHSTL→DCA

PSA Airlines · St. Louis to Washington

Flights: 615
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 25%
Carriers: 5

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with PSA Airlines.

PSA on STL to DCA sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about 2.1 hours behind schedule. That rests on 615 flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate PSA on STL to DCA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

74.1%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 575 completed flights

Avg delay

128 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

5.20%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

72.9%

Every carrier on STL to DCA, 2,414 flights

These figures cover 615 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.3% 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

PSA against every carrier on STL to DCA

PSA flew 615 of the 2,414 flights on STL to DCA, about 25% of it. Its 74.1% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 72.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 77.1% to American at 67.5%. Three 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.

On-time performance by carrier on STL to DCA
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Republic Airwaysthin sample	199	77.1%	62 min	3.52%	B−
PSA Airlines (this page)	615	74.1%	128 min	5.20%	C−
Envoy Airthin sample	22	72.7%	32 min	0.00%	C+
Southwest Airlines	1,403	72.5%	57 min	1.43%	C
American Airlinesthin sample	175	67.5%	83 min	2.86%	C

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 20 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am228 flights81.0%
8am–11am159 flights77.4%
11am–2pm24 flights—
2pm–5pm84 flights61.0%
5pm–8pm120 flights63.5%
8pm–5am—

Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 81.0% of the time, against 61.0% for the afternoon window. That is 20 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 228 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

PSA on STL to DCA through the year

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.April best, March worst

April is the best month on the calendar at 84.2% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. May was the busiest month here, with 78 flights.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 79.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 61.0%. 18 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why PSA runs late on this route

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 47% of the 19,000 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.

Carrier
47%
Late-arriving aircraft
39%
National Airspace System
9%
Extreme weather
4%
Security
1%

39% 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 19,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 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 19,046 reported delay minutes.

The largest share of delay minutes, 47%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 8,870 of the 19,000 delay minutes reported here.

Cancellations run at 5.20%, against 1.81% 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 costs

For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 12.3% 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.

The 719 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 67.4% on time across 615 flights, 7 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 7 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 615 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 STL to DCA

Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.20% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 2.1 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. 575 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

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.

Key figures