Route profile
DCA→ALB
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Washington to Albany, 318 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
FlyerIntel does not currently have live operational data for this airport.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 3% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,791 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DCA → ALB arrives on time 72.9% of the time; the return trip, ALB → DCA, arrives on time 71.4% of the time.
DCA → ALB spends 29.2 minutes on the ground on a 318-mile trip: 24.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DCA and 5.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at ALB.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Which day you fly matters unusually much here, a wider weekday spread than 95% of 4,467 comparable routes.
83.5% on time on a typical Saturday, against 68.2% on a Sunday.
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where DCA to ALB differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DCA to ALB struggles most at 2 PM: 60.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 17.3 points behind the 77.7% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.2 points.
Wednesday is the day DCA to ALB slips furthest against routes of similar length, 72.8% on time where they average 82.6%, 9.8 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 8 points.
In February, DCA to ALB runs 13.9 points below routes of similar length, 68.6% on time to 82.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 12.9 points.
PSA Airlines’ flights on DCA to ALB arrive on time 71.7% of the time, 3.3 points below the 75.0% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 4.1 points.
DCA to ALB against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 60.4% | routes of similar length | 77.7% | −17.3 pts | 187 here, 50,023 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 72.8% | routes of similar length | 82.6% | −9.8 pts | 552 here, 134,588 there |
| Month: February | 68.6% | routes of similar length | 82.5% | −13.9 pts | 242 here, 66,784 there |
| Airline: PSA Airlines | 71.7% | routes of similar length | 75.0% | −3.3 pts | 3,190 here, 46,597 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 318 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.
Why DCA → ALB flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DCA → ALB cancelled 181 of 3,791 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 21. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 74.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 28 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 181 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
134 cancellations, 74.0% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
29 cancellations, 16.0% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
16 cancellations, 8.8% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
2 cancellations, 1.1% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
181 coded cancellations were recorded on DCA → ALB; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
66 min late
against a median of 5 min early
DCA → ALB has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 5 min early, but the worst tenth are 71 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.
Percentiles over 3,791 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ALB after arriving from DCA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 27% | High risk |
| 60 min | 19% | High risk |
| 90 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.5% | Some 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 4.77% of the time and diverts 0.18% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,603 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 66 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,791 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DCA → ALB flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 83.4% of the time, against 63.8% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 19.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 84.1% on time from 1,050 flights
- 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 78.6% on time from 439 flights
- 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 60.4% on time from 195 flights
- 3 PM: 68.8% on time from 860 flights
- 4 PM to 9 PM: too few flights to score
- 10 PM: 63.8% on time from 941 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why DCA → ALB 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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DCA → ALB. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DCA → ALB, at 59.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 83.4% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 63.8%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Airlines | 3,370 | 71.7% | 5.16% | -4 min | 11.9% |
| Republic Airways | 212 | 83.7% | 1.89% | -9 min | 2.9% |
PSA Airlines flew 94.1% of the 3,582 flights listed. PSA Airlines cancelled 5.16% of its flights here against 1.89% for Republic Airways.
Republic Airways arrived on time 12.0 percentage points more often than PSA Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 15.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 69.0%
- Feb: 68.6%
- Mar: 73.2%
- Apr: 69.6%
- May: 75.4%
- Jun: 68.5%
- Jul: 63.1%
- Aug: 75.2%
- Sep: 84.6%
- Oct: 79.8%
- Nov: 79.9%
- Dec: 71.0%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 21.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 65.3% from 127 flights
- August 2023: 79.6% from 143 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (92)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (89)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (82)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (82)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (86)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (83)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (88)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (86)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (109)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (109)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (114)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (86)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (97)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (104)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (108)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (113)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (84)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (113)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (84)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (85)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (88)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (80)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (88)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (110)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (117)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (110)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (113)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 66.4% against 71.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,791 DCA → ALB 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