Route profile
DCA→DAL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Washington to Dallas, 1,184 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 31% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,311 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DCA → DAL arrives on time 75.3% of the time; the return trip, DAL → DCA, arrives on time 71.4% of the time, a 3.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DCA → DAL spends 22.2 minutes on the ground on a 1,184-mile trip: 16.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DCA and 5.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at DAL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
On-time performance swings unusually widely by time of day here, wider than 92% of 4,023 comparable routes.
90.9% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 59.3% for 3–6 PM.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where DCA to DAL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DCA to DAL struggles most at 4 PM: 57.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10.9 points behind the 68.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.8 points.
DCA to DAL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 AM: 89.3% arrive on time, 5.9 points ahead of the 83.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 5 points.
Friday is the day DCA to DAL slips furthest against routes of similar length, 71.6% on time where they average 75.7%, 4.1 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 4.6 points.
In May, DCA to DAL runs 15.2 points below routes of similar length, 59.0% on time to 74.2%. Against all other routes the gap is 16.3 points.
March is kinder to DCA to DAL than to routes of similar length: 80.8% on time against 75.7%, 5.1 points better.
DCA to DAL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 57.9% | routes of similar length | 68.8% | −10.9 pts | 190 here, 119,020 there |
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 89.3% | routes of similar length | 83.4% | +5.9 pts | 318 here, 107,340 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 71.6% | routes of similar length | 75.7% | −4.1 pts | 786 here, 310,462 there |
| Month: May | 59.0% | routes of similar length | 74.2% | −15.2 pts | 422 here, 172,249 there |
| Month: March | 80.8% | routes of similar length | 75.7% | +5.1 pts | 433 here, 186,545 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 1,184 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 → DAL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DCA → DAL cancelled 93 of 5,311 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 57. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 68.8% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 83 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 93 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.
64 cancellations, 68.8% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
15 cancellations, 16.1% 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, 15.1% 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. 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.
93 coded cancellations were recorded on DCA → DAL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
50 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 5,311 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DAL after arriving from DCA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 43% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 24% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.6% | 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 1.75% of the time and diverts 0.43% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,195 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 50 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,311 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DCA → DAL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.9% of the time, against 59.3% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 31.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 90.9% on time from 1,093 flights
- 7 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 89.3% on time from 319 flights
- 10 AM: 79.5% on time from 455 flights
- 11 AM: 85.3% on time from 288 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 75.3% on time from 395 flights
- 2 PM: 76.0% on time from 557 flights
- 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 57.9% on time from 195 flights
- 5 PM: 58.6% on time from 658 flights
- 6 PM: 62.0% on time from 229 flights
- 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 66.3% on time from 731 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why DCA → DAL 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 → DAL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DCA → DAL, at 49.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.9% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 59.3%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 5,311 | 75.3% | 1.75% | -3 min | 8.2% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 10.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 75.7%
- Feb: 81.1%
- Mar: 80.8%
- Apr: 74.6%
- May: 59.0%
- Jun: 68.2%
- Jul: 65.5%
- Aug: 77.2%
- Sep: 80.6%
- Oct: 83.3%
- Nov: 82.4%
- Dec: 78.2%
May is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 24.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 70.2% from 143 flights
- August 2023: 79.5% from 147 flights
- September 2023: 76.6% from 140 flights
- October 2023: 87.8% from 147 flights
- November 2023: 83.8% from 142 flights
- December 2023: 83.2% from 149 flights
- January 2024: 74.6% from 147 flights
- February 2024: 91.2% from 137 flights
- March 2024: 87.1% from 141 flights
- April 2024: 73.1% from 138 flights
- May 2024: 52.9% from 143 flights
- June 2024: 78.4% from 135 flights
- July 2024: 63.4% from 142 flights
- August 2024: 80.0% from 141 flights
- September 2024: 88.2% from 138 flights
- October 2024: 88.4% from 147 flights
- November 2024: 86.9% from 139 flights
- December 2024: 72.1% from 149 flights
- January 2025: 70.0% from 148 flights
- February 2025: 75.6% from 132 flights
- March 2025: 81.5% from 149 flights
- April 2025: 74.8% from 143 flights
- May 2025: 59.4% from 145 flights
- June 2025: 68.3% from 146 flights
- July 2025: 68.3% from 150 flights
- August 2025: 72.0% from 146 flights
- September 2025: 77.1% from 142 flights
- October 2025: 73.6% from 146 flights
- November 2025: 76.5% from 139 flights
- December 2025: 79.1% from 149 flights
- January 2026: 82.0% from 146 flights
- February 2026: 76.0% from 132 flights
- March 2026: 74.3% from 151 flights
- April 2026: 75.9% from 143 flights
- May 2026: 64.5% from 145 flights
- June 2026: 58.7% from 146 flights
- July 2026: 60.0% from 148 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 72.4% against 76.0% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,311 DCA → DAL 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