OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Washington to St. Louis

719 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on DCA–STL arrive on time 71% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate71%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay60 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled2.4%of scheduled flights

based on 2,224 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • Republic Airways
    On-time79%
    Medianon time
    p9030 min
    Cancel1.1%
    Flights91
  • Southwest Airlinesbest
    On-time75%
    Medianon time
    p9045 min
    Cancel1.2%
    Flights1,399
  • American Airlines
    On-time66%
    Medianon time
    p9090 min
    Cancel2.0%
    Flights204
  • PSA Airlines
    On-time61%
    Medianon time
    p9095 min
    Cancel5.8%
    Flights530

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline30%
  • Weather7%
  • Air traffic (NAS)11%
  • Late aircraft51%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline13%
  • Weather70%
  • Air traffic (NAS)15%
  • Security2%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 53 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 → STL

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 86% on time.

  • Mornings86% on time · p90 20 min · 1,849 flights
  • Middays84% on time · p90 25 min · 1,389 flights
  • Afternoons72% on time · p90 45 min · 1,687 flights
  • Evenings65% on time · p90 80 min · 1,601 flights
  • Overnights58% on time · p90 105 min · 458 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 71% to 81% on time.

  • Saturdays81% on time · p90 40 min · 649 flights
  • Tuesdays79% on time · p90 45 min · 1,083 flights
  • Wednesdays76% on time · p90 45 min · 1,084 flights
  • Thursdays75% on time · p90 40 min · 1,075 flights
  • Mondays75% on time · p90 50 min · 1,082 flights
  • Fridays72% on time · p90 55 min · 1,087 flights
  • Sundays71% on time · p90 55 min · 924 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.