JFK to DCA flight delays
New York, NY (JFK) Washington, VA (DCA) · 213 miles
210 flights · March 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
69.74%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
7.14%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
73 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
23 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: 7.14% 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 JFK arrives on time 14.6 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. JFK as a whole runs 8 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.
Only Republic Airways 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, Republic Airways arrived on time most often on JFK to DCA.
Every airline on JFK 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 180 | 74.1% | 7.78% | 67 min | D |
| JetBlue Airways | 30 | 44.83% | 3.33% | 88 min | — |
The return leg
DCA to JFK Washington back to New York 84.34% on time COther routes from New York
Common questions
Are flights from New York to Washington usually delayed?
69.74% of flights on the JFK 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 New York to Washington?
Only Republic Airways appears in the published record on this route, with 180 flights and 74.1% arriving on time.
How often are JFK to DCA flights cancelled?
7.14% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 71 in every thousand. That is high enough that cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth planning around.
When JFK to DCA flights are late, how late are they?
About 73 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 JFK 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 →