Route profile
DCA→LAS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Washington to Las Vegas, 2,089 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 1,651 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
DCA → LAS arrives on time 76.8% of the time; the return trip, LAS → DCA, arrives on time 76.0% of the time.
DCA → LAS spends 27.9 minutes on the ground on a 2,089-mile trip: 20.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DCA and 7.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAS.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 100% of 2,692 comparable routes.
American Airlines arrived on time 89.5% of the time, against 49.2% for Southwest Airlines, flying the exact same route.
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 DCA to LAS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
DCA to LAS struggles most at 4 PM: 45.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 28.4 points behind the 73.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 25.3 points.
DCA to LAS is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 AM: 89.2% arrive on time, 7.3 points ahead of the 81.9% those routes manage at that hour.
Tuesday is the day DCA to LAS slips furthest against routes of similar length, 75.2% on time where they average 82.2%, 7 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 6.4 points.
In April, DCA to LAS runs 9.1 points below routes of similar length, 72.0% on time to 81.1%. Against all other routes the gap is 7.9 points.
American Airlines does better on DCA to LAS than on its routes of similar length: 89.5% on time here, 78.0% there, 11.5 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 14.4 points.
DCA to LAS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 45.4% | routes of similar length | 73.8% | −28.4 pts | 454 here, 51,373 there |
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 89.2% | routes of similar length | 81.9% | +7.3 pts | 120 here, 69,849 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 75.2% | routes of similar length | 82.2% | −7.0 pts | 230 here, 131,326 there |
| Month: April | 72.0% | routes of similar length | 81.1% | −9.1 pts | 150 here, 79,386 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 89.5% | routes of similar length | 78.0% | +11.5 pts | 1,117 here, 235,335 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 2,089 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
43 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 1,651 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LAS after arriving from DCA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 37% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 23% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.2% | 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 0.85% of the time and diverts 0.24% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,633 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 43 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,651 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DCA → LAS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.5% of the time, against 44.8% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 44.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 90.0% on time from 880 flights
- 8 AM: 85.7% on time from 147 flights
- 9 AM: 89.2% on time from 120 flights
- 10 AM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 45.4% on time from 462 flights
- 5 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why DCA → LAS 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 → LAS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DCA → LAS, at 38.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.5% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 44.8%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 1,126 | 89.5% | 0.71% | -14 min | 3.0% |
| Southwest Airlines | 525 | 49.2% | 1.14% | 15 min | 17.1% |
American Airlines flew 68.2% of the 1,651 flights listed.
American Airlines arrived on time 40.3 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 12.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.0%
- Feb: 75.4%
- Mar: 84.7%
- Apr: 72.0%
- May: 74.8%
- Jun: 67.3%
- Jul: 73.6%
- Aug: 77.2%
- Sep: 80.7%
- Oct: 76.4%
- Nov: 79.8%
- Dec: 82.3%
June is historically the weakest month and March the strongest, a spread of 17.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 70.1% against 74.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,651 DCA → LAS 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