Route reliability record
TPA→DCA
Tampa to Washington
- Flights
- 2,249
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 814 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 2,249 TPA to DCA flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 699 at 75.1% on time.
Best time to fly TPA to DCA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.9% of the time and Tuesday flights 80.1%, against 74.7% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, 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
74.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,173 completed flights
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.49%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Southwest
75.1% on time across 699 flights
These figures cover 2,249 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.7% 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 TPA to DCA
The two carriers here are closely matched: about a point separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 26 | 88.5% | 35 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 699 | 75.1% | 51 min | 1.72% | B |
| American Airlines | 1,524 | 74.3% | 87 min | 2.89% | C |
No carrier stands out. Southwest tops the table at 75.1%, about a point clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Tampa 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. 3 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. TPA → IADTampa to Washington | United Airlines | 85.0% | 85.6% | 0.72% | 8am–11am, Tue | UA 2331 09:00 |
| 2. SRQ → BWISarasota to Baltimore | Southwest Airlines | 82.4% | 83.8% | 1.68% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 3. TPA → BWITampa to Baltimore | Southwest Airlines | 80.0% | 81.3% | 1.64% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 4. TPA → DCATampa to Washington | Southwest Airlines | 73.8% | 75.1% | 1.72% | 8am–11am, Sat | — |
| 5. TPA → DCATampa to Washington | American Airlines | 72.2% | 74.3% | 2.89% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
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 33 points, against about a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am232 flights92.9%
- 8am–11am491 flights86.3%
- 11am–2pm745 flights75.9%
- 2pm–5pm219 flights59.5%
- 5pm–8pm562 flights61.3%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 50% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.9% of the time, against 59.5% for the afternoon window. That is 33 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 745 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter TPA 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 TPA to DCA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.9% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 59.5%, a wide gap of 33.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.9%
- 8–11am86.3%
- 11am–2pm75.9%
- 2–5pm59.5%
- 5–8pm61.3%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 13 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.
July is the worst month at 68.5% on time, 13 points below January, the best at 81.0%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 218 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 63.8%, a spread of 16 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 41,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 20%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
56% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 41,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 to one. The split is drawn from 41,290 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 92.9% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.49% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.89%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
8.7% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 814 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 runs 73.9% on time across 2,248 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 2,249 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 calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 81.0% on time and July 68.5%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 2,173 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
TPA to DCA questions
How often is TPA 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 25.3% of the 2,249 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on TPA to DCA?
Southwest Airlines leads at 75.1% on time across 699 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 74.3%, a gap of about a point. 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 TPA to DCA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.9% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 59.5%, 33 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 July delays on TPA to DCA?
July is the weakest month at 68.5% on time, compared with 81.0% in January. Across the year that is 13 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 TPA — the return legseparate record
- Tampa International (TPA) delay statistics
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Southwest Airlines on TPA to DCA75.1%
- American Airlines on TPA to DCA74.3%
- TPA to ATL, a related route79.6%
- BOS to DCA, a related route72.6%
- TPA to ORD, a related route72.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record88.5%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record75.1%
- American Airlines on-time record74.3%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. TPA to DCA and DCA to TPA 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.