ATL to DCA flight delays
Atlanta, GA (ATL) Washington, VA (DCA) · 547 miles
562 flights · March 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
72.18%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
4.27%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
91 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
26 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth pricing here: 4.27% of scheduled flights never operated. A late flight still gets you there. A cancelled one leaves you rebooking, and on a route with few daily departures that can mean losing a day.
The two directions do not behave alike. DCA to ATL arrives on time 5.7 points more often than the outbound. Delay accumulates through the flying day, so whichever direction is scheduled later tends to carry the worse record — which is an argument for booking the morning departure if the choice exists.
This route does worse than its own airport. ATL as a whole runs 7.3 points more punctual than these flights, which points at something specific to the route — the time of day it is scheduled, or the aircraft that feed it — rather than the airport.
This is a thin route — 562 flights across the whole period. On a route this infrequent a cancellation is far more costly than the rate suggests, because the next departure may not be the same day.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over March 2025 – August 2026, PSA Airlines arrived on time most often on ATL to DCA. Delta Air Lines was late most often.
Every airline on ATL to DCA
Ranked by how many flights each one operated. A carrier with fewer than 100 flights in the period is listed but not graded.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 325 | 73.82% | 2.46% | 97 min | D |
| PSA Airlines | 104 | 74.44% | 12.5% | 101 min | F |
| Southwest Airlines | 86 | 61.73% | 0% | 68 min | — |
| Envoy Air | 26 | 84.62% | 0% | 110 min | — |
| Republic Airways | 21 | 61.11% | 14.29% | 68 min | — |
The return leg
DCA to ATL Washington back to Atlanta 77.9% on time DOther routes from Atlanta
Common questions
Are flights from Atlanta to Washington usually delayed?
72.18% of flights on the ATL to DCA route arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, so roughly 3 in every ten arrived late. That is worse than the average route in this record.
Which airline is most on time from Atlanta to Washington?
PSA Airlines, at 74.44% on time across 104 flights. The least punctual on the route was Delta Air Lines at 73.82%.
How often are ATL to DCA flights cancelled?
4.27% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 43 in every thousand. That is high enough that cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth planning around.
When ATL to DCA flights are late, how late are they?
About 91 minutes on average across the flights that arrived more than 15 minutes behind schedule.
What these figures do and do not tell you
Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on ATL to DCA during March 2025 – August 2026, as reported by the airlines to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. "On time" is the federal definition: arriving at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
A route's record is a description of the past, not a forecast. Weather, air traffic control and the aircraft's earlier flights that day drive most delays, and none of them are predictable from a historical rate. What the record does tell you is whether this route runs late more often than others, and which carrier on it has the better history — which is the part you can actually act on when you book.
Cancellations are counted separately from delays because they are a different problem for a traveller: a late flight still gets you there. How the grade is calculated →