DCA → MIA Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · DCANo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:52 UTC

Washington airport profile →

Destination · MIANo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Miami airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

55/ 100Fair

Better than 25% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 11,971 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

77.2%

9,008 of 11,674

Cancellation rate

2.09%

250 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-9 min

Average 8.4 min

Severe delays

9.4%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

83 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

11,971

2 carriers

DCA → MIA arrives on time 77.2% of the time; the return trip, MIA → DCA, arrives on time 74.5% of the time, a 2.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

DCA → MIA spends 31.0 minutes on the ground on a 919-mile trip: 20.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DCA and 10.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at MIA.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

Why DCA → MIA flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

DCA → MIA cancelled 250 of 11,971 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 48. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 84.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 57 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather84.4%

Airline8.4%

Air traffic7.2%

Security0.0%

Of 250 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 57

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

211 cancellations, 84.4% of the total.

The airline1 in 570

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

21 cancellations, 8.4% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 665

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

18 cancellations, 7.2% of the total.

Security—

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.

250 coded cancellations were recorded on DCA → MIA; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

56 min late

against a median of 9 min early

Arrived an hour or more late9.4%

Typical delay when late83 min

Cancelled2.09%

Landed somewhere else0.39%

DCA → MIA has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 9 min early, but the worst tenth are 65 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 11,971 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at MIA after arriving from DCA.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, DCA → MIA arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	36%	Likely to miss
45 min	22%	High risk
60 min	16%	High risk
90 min	9.2%	Some risk
120 min	6.1%	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 2.09% of the time and diverts 0.39% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 11,674 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 56 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 11,971 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

DCA → MIA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.3% of the time, against 65.8% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 23.5 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (DCA).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 10.5 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.7 points.

On-time arrival rate for DCA to MIA by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

50–59
60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures after 9 PM (8 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for DCA to MIA. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM	95.0% on time170 flights	93.6% on time162 flights	92.0% on time169 flights	93.4% on time170 flights	93.5% on time171 flights	92.5% on time174 flights	90.4% on time173 flights
6 AM–7 AM	89.2% on time174 flights	94.0% on time188 flights	90.4% on time169 flights	95.3% on time175 flights	89.0% on time174 flights	94.0% on time153 flights	93.2% on time136 flights
7 AM–8 AM	69 flights, too few to score	63 flights, too few to score	75 flights, too few to score	67 flights, too few to score	71 flights, too few to score	80 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score
8 AM–9 AM	81.0% on time130 flights	85.9% on time130 flights	76.9% on time131 flights	85.2% on time129 flights	79.4% on time129 flights	79.8% on time130 flights	78.0% on time129 flights
9 AM–10 AM	57 flights, too few to score	56 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score	56 flights, too few to score	55 flights, too few to score	46 flights, too few to score	55 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	84 flights, too few to score	85 flights, too few to score	87 flights, too few to score	84 flights, too few to score	85 flights, too few to score	47 flights, too few to score	88 flights, too few to score
11 AM–12 PM	79.5% on time152 flights	85.6% on time155 flights	84.5% on time154 flights	75.3% on time153 flights	81.3% on time152 flights	77.3% on time132 flights	70.7% on time149 flights
12 PM–1 PM	0 flights, too few to score	0 flights, too few to score	0 flights, too few to score	1 flight, too few to score	0 flights, too few to score	8 flights, too few to score	3 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	72.0% on time161 flights	79.5% on time159 flights	72.3% on time159 flights	72.7% on time159 flights	72.6% on time159 flights	68.3% on time147 flights	72.6% on time162 flights
2 PM–3 PM	71.3% on time125 flights	78.9% on time131 flights	73.2% on time126 flights	74.0% on time125 flights	68.0% on time127 flights	108 flights, too few to score	68.6% on time125 flights
3 PM–4 PM	78.3% on time123 flights	76.0% on time122 flights	68.0% on time127 flights	66.1% on time122 flights	68.8% on time126 flights	71.0% on time125 flights	117 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	42 flights, too few to score	41 flights, too few to score	40 flights, too few to score	41 flights, too few to score	43 flights, too few to score	47 flights, too few to score	48 flights, too few to score
5 PM–6 PM	62.7% on time164 flights	71.9% on time164 flights	64.6% on time164 flights	57.4% on time159 flights	54.4% on time162 flights	72.5% on time122 flights	55.6% on time167 flights
6 PM–7 PM	103 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score	98 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score	106 flights, too few to score	74 flights, too few to score	103 flights, too few to score
7 PM–8 PM	57 flights, too few to score	60 flights, too few to score	61 flights, too few to score	59 flights, too few to score	56 flights, too few to score	50 flights, too few to score	55 flights, too few to score
8 PM–9 PM	72.3% on time127 flights	78.9% on time128 flights	67.2% on time128 flights	66.4% on time127 flights	64.6% on time130 flights	91 flights, too few to score	64.8% on time130 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM89.3%

9 AM–12 PM81.9%

12–3 PM72.5%

3–6 PM65.8%

6–9 PM66.5%

9 PM–5 AM—

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.

Why DCA → MIA runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft47.7%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline25.5%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Air traffic control21.7%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather4.9%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.2%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DCA → MIA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DCA → MIA, at 47.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.3% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 65.8%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of DCA to MIA: 4.2 times the normal rate at DCA and 3.3 times at MIA. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: DCA 9.3% against 2.2%, MIA 4.5% against 1.3%. Flights that did leave MIA in bad weather arrived on time 50.6% of the time, against 74.1% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from DCA and MIA in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	DCA	MIA
Cancelled in bad weather	9.3%	4.5%
Cancelled in normal hours	2.2%	1.3%
Arrived on time, bad weather	63.5%	50.6%
Arrived on time, normal hours	78.3%	74.1%
Departures in bad weather	41,449	15,746

Delta Air Lines (5.3% cancelled against 10.0% for the other carriers at DCA) and American Airlines (6.4% cancelled against 9.5% for the other carriers at DCA) cancelled fewer departures from DCA in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly worse.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at DCA

All departures from DCA

Cancellation rates in bad weather at DCA for the airlines that fly DCA to MIA, against the other carriers at DCA in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
Delta Air Lines	2,726	5.3%below the others	10.0%
American Airlines	8,236	6.4%below the others	9.5%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from DCA and MIA, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from DCA on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: DCA (airlines), MIA, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
American Airlines	10,818	77.7%	2.18%	-9 min	9.2%
Delta Air Lines	998	72.9%	1.30%	-6 min	11.2%

American Airlines flew 91.6% of the 11,816 flights listed.

American Airlines arrived on time 4.8 percentage points more often than Delta Air Lines on this route.

Other ways to fly Washington to Miami

Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.

Other ways to fly Washington to Miami
Route	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Score
DCA→MIA this route Washington to Miami	11,971	77.2%	2.09%	-9 min	55
BWI→FLL Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale	11,068	75.0%	1.74%	-4 min	58

Flying to MIA from the Washington area? Compare DCA, BWI, IAD for MIA, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
DL2576 Delta Air Lines	2:55 PM	808	71.6%
AA1178 American Airlines	5:00 AM	726	91.4%
AA422 American Airlines	8:15 AM	627	81.2%

AA1178 (5:00 AM) arrived on time 91.4% of the time, 19.8 points more often than DL2576 (2:55 PM) at 71.6%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon77.6%

Tue82.2%

Wed77.2%

Thu77.2%

Fri75.0%

Sat78.3%

Sun72.7%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.5 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

August is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 18.9 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.6% against 78.0% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 11,971 DCA → MIA 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

DCA airport MIA airport Return direction MIA → DCA

DCA→MIA

Right now

Route reliability

Why DCA → MIA flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why DCA → MIA runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at DCA

Airlines on this route

Other ways to fly Washington to Miami

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology