DEN → DCA Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · DENNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 04:53 UTC

Denver airport profile →

Destination · DCANo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 04:52 UTC

Washington airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

68/ 100Good

Better than 55% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 4,369 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

78.9%

3,396 of 4,305

Cancellation rate

0.94%

41 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-7 min

Average 4.9 min

Severe delays

7.6%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

67 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

4,369

2 carriers

DEN → DCA arrives on time 78.9% of the time; the return trip, DCA → DEN, arrives on time 79.2% of the time.

DEN → DCA spends 24.4 minutes on the ground on a 1,476-mile trip: 18.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DEN and 5.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at DCA.

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

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

45 min late

against a median of 7 min early

Arrived an hour or more late7.6%

Typical delay when late67 min

Cancelled0.94%

Landed somewhere else0.53%

Percentiles over 4,369 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at DCA after arriving from DEN.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, DEN → DCA arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	35%	Likely to miss
45 min	20%	High risk
60 min	14%	Some risk
90 min	7.5%	Some risk
120 min	4.4%	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 0.94% of the time and diverts 0.53% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 4,305 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 45 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,369 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

DEN → DCA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.9% of the time, against 65.8% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 25.1 percentage points.

By departure window

5–9 AM90.9%

9 AM–12 PM80.1%

12–3 PM77.3%

3–6 PM65.8%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why DEN → DCA runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft34.5%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Air traffic control31.6%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

The airline29.3%

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

Weather4.5%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

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

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DEN → DCA, at 34.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.9% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 65.8%.

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
Frontier Airlines	3,243	77.3%	1.14%	-8 min	8.4%
United Airlines	1,126	83.5%	0.36%	-6 min	5.4%

Frontier Airlines flew 74.2% of the 4,369 flights listed.

United Airlines arrived on time 6.2 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.

Other ways to fly Denver to Washington

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

Other ways to fly Denver to Washington
Route	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Score
DEN→IAD Denver to Washington	10,253	78.7%	0.97%	-5 min	68
DEN→DCA this route Denver to Washington	4,369	78.9%	0.94%	-7 min	68

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
F9690 Frontier Airlines	4:38 PM	880	62.3%
F9686 Frontier Airlines	6:40 AM	874	91.5%
F9688 Frontier Airlines	11:44 AM	860	74.7%

F9686 (6:40 AM) arrived on time 91.5% of the time, 29.2 points more often than F9690 (4:38 PM) at 62.3%.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon74.7%

Tue82.2%

Wed80.5%

Thu76.4%

Fri77.2%

Sat83.1%

Sun78.5%

Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 8.4 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

February is historically the weakest month and December the strongest, a spread of 11.9 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 81.2% against 75.6% in the 12 months before — improving by 5.6 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,369 DEN → DCA 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

DEN airport DCA airport Return direction DCA → DEN

DEN→DCA

Right now

Route reliability

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By departure window

By departure hour

Why DEN → DCA runs late

Airlines on this route

Other ways to fly Denver to Washington

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology