Route profile
DCA→IAH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Washington to Houston, 1,208 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 44% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,839 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DCA → IAH arrives on time 81.9% of the time; the return trip, IAH → DCA, arrives on time 76.3% of the time, a 5.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
DCA → IAH spends 28.3 minutes on the ground on a 1,208-mile trip: 18.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DCA and 10.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAH.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where DCA to IAH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DCA to IAH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 11 AM: 91.0% arrive on time, 11.8 points ahead of the 79.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10 points.
DCA to IAH struggles most at 1 PM: 68.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 6.4 points behind the 75.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.5 points.
DCA to IAH holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 86.5% on time to their 77.3%, a 9.2 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
March is kinder to DCA to IAH than to routes of similar length: 87.1% on time against 75.7%, 11.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.2 points.
DCA to IAH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 11 AM departures | 91.0% | routes of similar length | 79.2% | +11.8 pts | 820 here, 117,638 there |
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 68.6% | routes of similar length | 75.0% | −6.4 pts | 226 here, 108,943 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 86.5% | routes of similar length | 77.3% | +9.2 pts | 750 here, 259,664 there |
| Month: March | 87.1% | routes of similar length | 75.7% | +11.4 pts | 669 here, 174,533 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 1,208 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 → IAH flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
DCA → IAH cancelled 155 of 7,839 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 51. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 53.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 94 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 155 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.
83 cancellations, 53.5% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
40 cancellations, 25.8% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
32 cancellations, 20.6% 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.
155 coded cancellations were recorded on DCA → IAH; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
42 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 7,839 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAH after arriving from DCA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 30% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.0% | 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 1.98% of the time and diverts 0.40% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,653 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 42 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,839 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DCA → IAH flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.1% of the time, against 66.4% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 23.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 90.7% on time from 975 flights
- 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 89.5% on time from 1,062 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 87.7% on time from 285 flights
- 11 AM: 91.0% on time from 838 flights
- 12 PM: 88.5% on time from 1,073 flights
- 1 PM: 68.6% on time from 243 flights
- 2 PM: 76.8% on time from 983 flights
- 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 64.8% on time from 992 flights
- 5 PM to 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 75.1% on time from 1,049 flights
- 8 PM: 72.3% on time from 131 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DCA → IAH 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 → IAH. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DCA → IAH, at 40.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.1% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 66.4%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 6,895 | 83.1% | 1.54% | -11 min | 7.0% |
| Republic Airways | 511 | 75.7% | 5.09% | -9 min | 8.0% |
| PSA Airlines | 360 | 67.1% | 6.11% | -2 min | 15.2% |
United Airlines flew 88.8% of the 7,766 flights listed. PSA Airlines cancelled 6.11% of its flights here against 1.54% for United Airlines.
United Airlines arrived on time 16.0 percentage points more often than PSA Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA697 United Airlines | 8:20 AM | 1,016 | 90.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 7.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.8%
- Feb: 88.5%
- Mar: 87.1%
- Apr: 84.5%
- May: 71.8%
- Jun: 72.0%
- Jul: 70.8%
- Aug: 83.2%
- Sep: 85.3%
- Oct: 88.8%
- Nov: 87.6%
- Dec: 84.2%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 18.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 73.9% from 166 flights
- August 2023: 83.6% from 172 flights
- September 2023: 83.9% from 169 flights
- October 2023: 87.8% from 181 flights
- November 2023: 92.7% from 193 flights
- December 2023: 93.4% from 181 flights
- January 2024: 81.1% from 183 flights
- February 2024: 94.3% from 193 flights
- March 2024: 89.8% from 197 flights
- April 2024: 81.6% from 176 flights
- May 2024: 63.8% from 169 flights
- June 2024: 78.4% from 160 flights
- July 2024: 62.0% from 167 flights
- August 2024: 83.1% from 170 flights
- September 2024: 85.6% from 171 flights
- October 2024: 91.7% from 182 flights
- November 2024: 90.8% from 196 flights
- December 2024: 80.4% from 180 flights
- January 2025: 78.6% from 176 flights
- February 2025: 80.5% from 176 flights
- March 2025: 90.3% from 196 flights
- April 2025: 88.6% from 202 flights
- May 2025: 79.3% from 206 flights
- June 2025: 66.8% from 193 flights
- July 2025: 74.6% from 207 flights
- August 2025: 82.8% from 207 flights
- September 2025: 86.0% from 272 flights
- October 2025: 87.6% from 291 flights
- November 2025: 81.3% from 270 flights
- December 2025: 80.5% from 274 flights
- January 2026: 84.1% from 282 flights
- February 2026: 89.7% from 258 flights
- March 2026: 83.0% from 289 flights
- April 2026: 83.3% from 282 flights
- May 2026: 70.9% from 288 flights
- June 2026: 71.9% from 280 flights
- July 2026: 70.8% from 284 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.9% against 82.5% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,839 DCA → IAH 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