OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Philadelphia to Washington

119 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on PHL–DCA arrive on time 59% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate59%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay90 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled4.5%of scheduled flights

based on 831 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-time65%
    Medianon time
    p9060 min
    Cancel7.6%
    Flights198
  • PSA Airlines
    On-time57%
    Medianon time
    p90100 min
    Cancel3.5%
    Flights633

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline20%
  • Weather9%
  • Air traffic (NAS)29%
  • Late aircraft42%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline0%
  • Weather70%
  • Air traffic (NAS)30%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 37 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 PHL → DCA

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

Best time of day

Middays are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 89% on time.

  • Middays89% on time · p90 10 min · 852 flights
  • Mornings85% on time · p90 20 min · 770 flights
  • Afternoons76% on time · p90 45 min · 893 flights
  • Evenings63% on time · p90 90 min · 1,033 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 74% to 81% on time.

  • Wednesdays81% on time · p90 30 min · 535 flights
  • Tuesdays80% on time · p90 35 min · 536 flights
  • Saturdays78% on time · p90 50 min · 470 flights
  • Thursdays77% on time · p90 50 min · 526 flights
  • Mondays75% on time · p90 40 min · 529 flights
  • Fridays74% on time · p90 55 min · 531 flights
  • Sundays74% on time · p90 50 min · 476 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.