OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Seattle to Washington

2,306 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on SEA–IAD arrive on time 80% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate80%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay35 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled0.7%of scheduled flights

based on 1,844 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • United Airlinesbest
    On-time84%
    Medianon time
    p9025 min
    Cancel0.6%
    Flights704
  • Alaska Airlines
    On-time78%
    Medianon time
    p9035 min
    Cancel0.5%
    Flights835
  • Delta Air Lines
    On-time77%
    Medianon time
    p9050 min
    Cancel1.3%
    Flights305

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline43%
  • Weather3%
  • Air traffic (NAS)15%
  • Late aircraft38%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Airline.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline50%
  • Weather50%
  • Air traffic (NAS)0%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Airline. Shares are among 12 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 SEA → IAD

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 77% to 82% on time.

  • Mornings82% on time · p90 25 min · 2,311 flights
  • Middays79% on time · p90 30 min · 1,179 flights
  • Overnights78% on time · p90 30 min · 1,922 flights
  • Afternoons77% on time · p90 35 min · 938 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 76% to 84% on time.

  • Wednesdays84% on time · p90 25 min · 882 flights
  • Tuesdays83% on time · p90 25 min · 870 flights
  • Thursdays80% on time · p90 30 min · 935 flights
  • Mondays79% on time · p90 25 min · 929 flights
  • Saturdays78% on time · p90 30 min · 855 flights
  • Fridays77% on time · p90 35 min · 943 flights
  • Sundays76% on time · p90 40 min · 936 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.