DFW to DCA flight delays
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (DFW) Washington, VA (DCA) · 1,192 miles
270 flights · March 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
67.57%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
3.33%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
74 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
25 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: 3.33% 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 DFW arrives on time 10.1 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 is a late route. Flights from Dallas/Fort Worth to Washington miss their scheduled arrival often enough that a tight connection at the far end is a connection at risk.
Only American Airlines flies this route in the published record, so there is no choice to weigh — the route's figures and the airline's are the same figures.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over March 2025 – August 2026, American Airlines arrived on time most often on DFW to DCA.
Every airline on DFW 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 270 | 67.57% | 3.33% | 74 min | D |
Other routes from Dallas/Fort Worth
Common questions
Are flights from Dallas/Fort Worth to Washington usually delayed?
67.57% of flights on the DFW 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 Dallas/Fort Worth to Washington?
Only American Airlines appears in the published record on this route, with 270 flights and 67.57% arriving on time.
How often are DFW to DCA flights cancelled?
3.33% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 33 in every thousand. That is high enough that cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth planning around.
When DFW to DCA flights are late, how late are they?
About 74 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 DFW 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 →