DAY to DCA flight delays
Dayton, OH (DAY) Washington, VA (DCA) · 391 miles
968 flights · January 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
72.2%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
4.24%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
115 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
33 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: 4.24% 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 season swings this route hard. In June it ran 23.4 points more punctual than in March — a difference bigger than the one between the best and worst airlines on most routes. If the date is flexible, it is worth more than the carrier.
The two directions do not behave alike. DCA to DAY arrives on time 8 points less 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. DAY as a whole runs 8.7 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.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over January 2025 – August 2026, PSA Airlines arrived on time most often on DAY to DCA. Flights ran closest to schedule in June and worst in March.
Every airline on DAY 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Airlines | 968 | 72.2% | 4.24% | 115 min | D |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
The return leg
DCA to DAY Washington back to Dayton 64.25% on time FCommon questions
Are flights from Dayton to Washington usually delayed?
72.2% of flights on the DAY 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 airlines fly from Dayton to Washington?
Only PSA Airlines appears in the published record on this route, with 968 flights and 72.2% arriving on time.
How often are DAY to DCA flights cancelled?
4.24% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 42 in every thousand. That is high enough that cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth planning around.
What is the best month to fly Dayton to Washington?
June, when 84.6% of flights arrived on time. The worst was March at 61.2%.
When DAY to DCA flights are late, how late are they?
About 115 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 DAY to DCA during January 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 →