OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Washington to Buffalo

296 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on DCA–BUF arrive on time 63% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate63%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay75 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled4.3%of scheduled flights

based on 907 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

Not enough comparable data to name a most-on-time carrier — low-data carriers aren't ranked.

  • Republic Airways
    On-time66%
    Medianon time
    p9045 min
    Cancel1.4%
    Flights139
  • PSA Airlines
    On-time63%
    Medianon time
    p9085 min
    Cancel4.4%
    Flights705
  • Envoy Air
    On-time62%
    Medianon time
    p90105 min
    Cancel9.5%
    Flights63

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline18%
  • Weather12%
  • Air traffic (NAS)12%
  • Late aircraft58%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline3%
  • Weather82%
  • Air traffic (NAS)15%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 39 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 → BUF

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

Best time of day

On-time rates are fairly even by time of day on this route — ranging from 58% to 79% on time.

  • Middays79% on time · p90 40 min · 1,317 flights
  • Mornings74% on time · p90 40 min · 130 flights · limited
  • Afternoons68% on time · p90 75 min · 1,039 flights
  • Overnights58% on time · p90 70 min · 978 flights

Best day of week

Saturdays are the most reliable day to fly this route — 77% on time.

  • Saturdays77% on time · p90 50 min · 390 flights
  • Tuesdays71% on time · p90 65 min · 519 flights
  • Mondays70% on time · p90 65 min · 521 flights
  • Thursdays70% on time · p90 65 min · 514 flights
  • Wednesdays70% on time · p90 45 min · 517 flights
  • Sundays67% on time · p90 60 min · 525 flights
  • Fridays65% on time · p90 75 min · 520 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.