Route profile
DCA→CHS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Washington to Charleston, 444 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 10% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,517 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DCA → CHS arrives on time 75.2% of the time; the return trip, CHS → DCA, arrives on time 76.0% of the time.
DCA → CHS spends 31.5 minutes on the ground on a 444-mile trip: 24.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DCA and 7.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at CHS.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where DCA to CHS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DCA to CHS struggles most at 2 PM: 70.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5.6 points behind the 76.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4.2 points.
DCA to CHS is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 71.6% arrive on time, 4 points ahead of the 67.6% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4.2 points.
Wednesday is the day DCA to CHS slips furthest against routes of similar length, 75.6% on time where they average 82.0%, 6.4 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 5.2 points.
In February, DCA to CHS runs 8.2 points below routes of similar length, 73.5% on time to 81.7%. Against all other routes the gap is 8 points.
American Airlines’ flights on DCA to CHS arrive on time 70.8% of the time, 3.7 points below the 74.5% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 4.3 points.
DCA to CHS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 70.4% | routes of similar length | 76.0% | −5.6 pts | 463 here, 88,602 there |
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 71.6% | routes of similar length | 67.6% | +4.0 pts | 682 here, 76,454 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 75.6% | routes of similar length | 82.0% | −6.4 pts | 790 here, 217,462 there |
| Month: February | 73.5% | routes of similar length | 81.7% | −8.2 pts | 400 here, 108,903 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 70.8% | routes of similar length | 74.5% | −3.7 pts | 1,247 here, 186,771 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 444 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 → CHS flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DCA → CHS cancelled 187 of 5,517 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 30. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 72.2% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 41 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 187 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.
135 cancellations, 72.2% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
38 cancellations, 20.3% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
14 cancellations, 7.5% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
187 coded cancellations were recorded on DCA → CHS; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
60 min late
against a median of 6 min early
DCA → CHS has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 6 min early, but the worst tenth are 66 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 5,517 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CHS after arriving from DCA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 39% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 24% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.9% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.3% | 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 3.39% of the time and diverts 0.16% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,321 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 60 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,517 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DCA → CHS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 83.2% of the time, against 68.4% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 14.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 83.1% on time from 1,104 flights
- 9 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 78.3% on time from 436 flights
- 12 PM: 79.7% on time from 565 flights
- 1 PM: 79.1% on time from 408 flights
- 2 PM: 70.4% on time from 481 flights
- 3 PM: 75.9% on time from 314 flights
- 4 PM: 72.2% on time from 147 flights
- 5 PM: 65.1% on time from 902 flights
- 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 71.2% on time from 265 flights
- 8 PM: 71.6% on time from 716 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why DCA → CHS 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 → CHS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DCA → CHS, at 57.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 83.2% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 68.4%.
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 | 2,814 | 73.6% | 4.44% | -5 min | 11.2% |
| Republic Airways | 1,327 | 82.1% | 2.86% | -9 min | 5.7% |
| American Airlines | 1,272 | 70.8% | 1.89% | -4 min | 13.1% |
PSA Airlines flew 52.0% of the 5,413 flights listed. PSA Airlines cancelled 4.44% of its flights here against 1.89% for American Airlines.
Republic Airways arrived on time 11.3 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 8.4 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 73.7%
- Feb: 73.5%
- Mar: 75.0%
- Apr: 76.6%
- May: 72.7%
- Jun: 74.4%
- Jul: 61.7%
- Aug: 77.0%
- Sep: 79.3%
- Oct: 85.0%
- Nov: 81.9%
- Dec: 75.3%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 23.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 55.1% from 142 flights
- August 2023: 84.4% from 147 flights
- September 2023: 82.7% from 144 flights
- October 2023: 95.2% from 147 flights
- November 2023: 86.4% from 140 flights
- December 2023: 83.6% from 123 flights
- January 2024: 76.3% from 137 flights
- February 2024: 90.0% from 141 flights
- March 2024: 79.9% from 149 flights
- April 2024: 74.1% from 145 flights
- May 2024: 74.0% from 154 flights
- June 2024: 90.0% from 150 flights
- July 2024: 69.0% from 154 flights
- August 2024: 74.0% from 154 flights
- September 2024: 84.2% from 147 flights
- October 2024: 84.1% from 151 flights
- November 2024: 89.2% from 139 flights
- December 2024: 83.5% from 144 flights
- January 2025: 71.9% from 166 flights
- February 2025: 62.6% from 160 flights
- March 2025: 77.3% from 176 flights
- April 2025: 76.7% from 176 flights
- May 2025: 68.5% from 180 flights
- June 2025: 66.4% from 150 flights
- July 2025: 63.5% from 150 flights
- August 2025: 72.7% from 149 flights
- September 2025: 71.0% from 145 flights
- October 2025: 76.0% from 151 flights
- November 2025: 70.0% from 143 flights
- December 2025: 59.7% from 144 flights
- January 2026: 72.9% from 143 flights
- February 2026: 66.7% from 133 flights
- March 2026: 67.1% from 152 flights
- April 2026: 78.8% from 148 flights
- May 2026: 76.2% from 151 flights
- June 2026: 65.7% from 146 flights
- July 2026: 58.8% from 146 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 69.7% against 74.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,517 DCA → CHS 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