Route profile
ATL→IAD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Atlanta to Washington. · 534 miles
Right now
Current conditions at both ends of this route.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Airport conditions describe the airfield, not any individual flight. An airport operating normally is not a guarantee that a specific flight will depart on time.
Route reliability
July 2023 – June 2026
Better than 39% of comparable major US routes (4,577 compared)
Calculated from 10,941 flights. How this is calculated
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – June 2026
Best time to fly
On-time arrival rate by scheduled local departure time.
ATL → IAD flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.9% of the time, against 70.1% for 9 PM–5 AM departures — a gap of 19.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026 · Buckets with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Airlines on this route
Performance by the carrier that actually operated the flight.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 6,372 | 79.5% | 1.51% | -3 min | 7.4% |
| United Airlines | 3,360 | 82.5% | 0.86% | -6 min | 7.2% |
| Frontier Airlines | 898 | 61.5% | 2.67% | 2 min | 19.5% |
United Airlines arrived on time 21.0 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026 · Carriers with fewer than 200 flights on this route are not listed.
Other ways to fly Atlanta to Washington
Airport pairs serving the same journey, grouped by the DOT's own city-market definition. They do not perform the same way.
ATL → IAD is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 79.2% on time, against 74.2% for ATL → DCA.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026 · Grouped by DOT city market, which places Newark with the New York airports and Baltimore with the Washington ones.
Individual flights on this route
The same route is not equally reliable at every hour. These are the flight numbers with enough operating history to judge separately.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL1695 Delta Air Lines | 3:10 PM | 1,024 | 74.9% |
| DL2549 Delta Air Lines | 10:15 PM | 1,000 | 75.6% |
| UA2634 United Airlines | 7:30 PM | 967 | 77.4% |
| UA632 United Airlines | 9:25 AM | 802 | 88.1% |
| DL2902 Delta Air Lines | 4:30 PM | 733 | 77.4% |
| DL1309 Delta Air Lines | 7:25 PM | 581 | 73.7% |
| DL1444 Delta Air Lines | 7:05 AM | 480 | 87.9% |
| UA1831 United Airlines | 2:38 PM | 475 | 76.6% |
| F94708 Frontier Airlines | 11:00 AM | 352 | 65.9% |
| F91082 Frontier Airlines | 10:23 PM | 325 | 56.2% |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026 · Flight numbers with fewer than 270 operations on this route, or no longer scheduled, are not listed.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 7.2 percentage points.
By month
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 20.6 percentage points.
Historical trend
On-time arrival rate by month.
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-07 to 2026-06), on-time arrivals averaged 76.4% against 77.4% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026
Data and methodology
All figures on this page are calculated by FlyerIntel from 10,941 ATL → IAD flight records published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – June 2026. A flight is counted as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after its scheduled arrival time, following BTS methodology. Cancelled and diverted flights have no arrival time and are excluded from on-time rates rather than counted as late.