OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Washington to Atlanta

547 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on DCA–ATL arrive on time 75% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate75%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay50 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled3.5%of scheduled flights

based on 6,435 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

Too close to call — no single carrier is clearly more on-time here.

  • Republic Airways
    On-time78%
    Medianon time
    p9025 min
    Cancel4.6%
    Flights431
  • Delta Air Lines
    On-time78%
    Medianon time
    p9045 min
    Cancel2.9%
    Flights3,830
  • Southwest Airlines
    On-time76%
    Medianon time
    p9040 min
    Cancel1.7%
    Flights1,169
  • PSA Airlines
    On-time63%
    Medianon time
    p9075 min
    Cancel7.6%
    Flights1,005

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline33%
  • Weather5%
  • Air traffic (NAS)17%
  • Late aircraft46%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline22%
  • Weather61%
  • Air traffic (NAS)17%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 226 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly DCA → ATL

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 86% on time.

  • Mornings86% on time · p90 15 min · 7,088 flights
  • Middays82% on time · p90 25 min · 5,030 flights
  • Afternoons74% on time · p90 45 min · 2,658 flights
  • Overnights71% on time · p90 70 min · 1,654 flights
  • Evenings68% on time · p90 75 min · 4,188 flights

Best day of week

Saturdays are the most reliable day to fly this route — 84% on time.

  • Saturdays84% on time · p90 30 min · 2,370 flights
  • Wednesdays81% on time · p90 35 min · 2,963 flights
  • Tuesdays80% on time · p90 35 min · 3,083 flights
  • Thursdays79% on time · p90 40 min · 3,088 flights
  • Mondays78% on time · p90 40 min · 3,090 flights
  • Sundays75% on time · p90 45 min · 2,939 flights
  • Fridays75% on time · p90 50 min · 3,085 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.