Route profile
BNA→IAD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Nashville to Washington, 542 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 55% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,027 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
BNA → IAD arrives on time 80.9% of the time; the return trip, IAD → BNA, arrives on time 81.1% of the time.
BNA → IAD spends 25.8 minutes on the ground on a 542-mile trip: 18.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BNA and 7.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAD.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 95% of 2,692 comparable routes.
United Airlines (80.9% on time) and Allegiant Air (79.9%) are close together here.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where BNA to IAD differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BNA to IAD is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 76.3% arrive on time, 8.1 points ahead of the 68.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.8 points.
August is kinder to BNA to IAD than to routes of similar length: 85.2% on time against 77.4%, 7.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.7 points.
United Airlines does better on BNA to IAD than on its routes of similar length: 80.9% on time here, 78.5% there, 2.4 points apart.
BNA to IAD against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 76.3% | routes of similar length | 68.2% | +8.1 pts | 1,039 here, 96,660 there |
| Month: August | 85.2% | routes of similar length | 77.4% | +7.8 pts | 263 here, 140,696 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 80.9% | routes of similar length | 78.5% | +2.4 pts | 2,755 here, 125,927 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 542 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
41 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 3,027 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAD after arriving from BNA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 36% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.9% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 0.86% of the time and diverts 0.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,996 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 41 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,027 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BNA → IAD flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.2% of the time, against 76.3% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 13.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 90.9% on time from 657 flights
- 9 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 78.7% on time from 1,052 flights
- 2 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 76.3% on time from 1,046 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why BNA → IAD runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BNA → IAD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on BNA → IAD, at 42.6%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.2% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 76.3%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 2,785 | 80.9% | 0.90% | -5 min | 7.5% |
| Allegiant Air | 200 | 79.9% | 0.50% | -7 min | 9.5% |
United Airlines flew 93.3% of the 2,985 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Other ways to fly Nashville to Washington
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNA→DCA Nashville to Washington | 12,843 | 76.7% | 2.79% | -5 min | 54 |
| BNA→IAD this route Nashville to Washington | 3,027 | 80.9% | 0.86% | -5 min | 68 |
BNA → IAD is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 80.9% on time, against 76.7% for BNA → DCA.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA2125 United Airlines | 1:30 PM | 1,081 | 79.3% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.1%
- Feb: 84.6%
- Mar: 74.2%
- Apr: 87.6%
- May: 77.1%
- Jun: 77.9%
- Jul: 72.6%
- Aug: 85.2%
- Sep: 84.6%
- Oct: 86.3%
- Nov: 81.8%
- Dec: 82.3%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 15.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.0% against 81.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,027 BNA → IAD flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed