Route profile
IAD→AUS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Washington to Austin, 1,297 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 67% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,324 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAD → AUS arrives on time 81.5% of the time; the return trip, AUS → IAD, arrives on time 87.7% of the time, a 6.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAD → AUS spends 29.3 minutes on the ground on a 1,297-mile trip: 21.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAD and 7.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at AUS.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where IAD to AUS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAD to AUS is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 84.1% arrive on time, 8.4 points ahead of the 75.7% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7 points.
IAD to AUS holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 82.8% on time to their 76.1%, a 6.7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.6 points.
March is kinder to IAD to AUS than to routes of similar length: 84.5% on time against 76.9%, 7.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.6 points.
IAD to AUS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 84.1% | routes of similar length | 75.7% | +8.4 pts | 559 here, 96,358 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 82.8% | routes of similar length | 76.1% | +6.7 pts | 524 here, 263,413 there |
| Month: March | 84.5% | routes of similar length | 76.9% | +7.6 pts | 265 here, 153,336 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 1,297 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
34 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 3,324 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at AUS after arriving from IAD.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.4% | 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 0.84% of the time and diverts 0.09% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,293 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 34 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,324 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAD → AUS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.9% of the time, against 65.7% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 25.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 90.9% on time from 963 flights
- 9 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 85.7% on time from 324 flights
- 1 PM: 84.1% on time from 563 flights
- 2 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 73.7% on time from 187 flights
- 5 PM: 75.0% on time from 914 flights
- 6 PM: 67.4% on time from 141 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IAD → AUS 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for IAD → AUS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IAD → AUS, at 37.9%: 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 6–9 PM departures 65.7%.
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 | 2,976 | 82.3% | 0.84% | -7 min | 6.5% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 11.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.6%
- Feb: 88.0%
- Mar: 84.5%
- Apr: 84.0%
- May: 76.4%
- Jun: 70.8%
- Jul: 71.9%
- Aug: 79.2%
- Sep: 85.6%
- Oct: 89.0%
- Nov: 89.3%
- Dec: 84.7%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 18.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (106)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (114)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (116)
- October 2023: 81.5% from 124 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (101)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (102)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (99)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (77)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (87)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (89)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (94)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (78)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (76)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (73)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (75)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (87)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (74)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (63)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (51)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (65)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (87)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (113)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (96)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (102)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (109)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (89)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (79)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (77)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (71)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (76)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (92)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (82)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (88)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (88)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (89)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 84.8% against 79.5% in the 12 months before — improving by 5.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,324 IAD → AUS 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