DCA to BNA flight delays
Washington, VA (DCA) Nashville, TN (BNA) · 562 miles
366 flights · March 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
74.21%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
4.64%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
70 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
19 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Which airline you fly changes the odds here. Republic Airways arrived on time 17.2 points more often than Southwest Airlines over the same period on the same route — same airports, same weather, same air traffic control. A gap that survives all of that is about how the two airlines are run.
Cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth pricing here: 4.64% 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. BNA to DCA arrives on time 6.3 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 is a thin route — 366 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, Republic Airways arrived on time most often on DCA to BNA. Southwest Airlines was late most often.
Every airline on DCA to BNA
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 142 | 67.41% | 4.93% | 70 min | F |
| Republic Airways | 134 | 84.62% | 2.99% | 74 min | B |
| PSA Airlines | 39 | 65.71% | 10.26% | 54 min | — |
| Envoy Air | 26 | 80.77% | 0% | 42 min | — |
| American Airlines | 25 | 60.87% | 8% | 97 min | — |
The return leg
BNA to DCA Nashville back to Washington 67.91% on time DOther routes from Washington
What these figures do and do not tell you
Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on DCA to BNA 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 →