Route profile
IAD→FLL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Washington to Fort Lauderdale, 901 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 62% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,477 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAD → FLL arrives on time 80.9% of the time; the return trip, FLL → IAD, arrives on time 85.8% of the time, a 4.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAD → FLL spends 28.7 minutes on the ground on a 901-mile trip: 22.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAD and 6.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at FLL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability here swings unusually widely by season, a wider month-to-month spread than 92% of 3,357 comparable routes.
90.6% on time in a typical November, against 65.9% in July.
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 3,357 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where IAD to FLL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAD to FLL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 76.8% arrive on time, 9 points ahead of the 67.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7 points.
IAD to FLL holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 83.1% on time to their 76.5%, a 6.6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
April is kinder to IAD to FLL than to routes of similar length: 90.2% on time against 79.9%, 10.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.3 points.
IAD to FLL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 76.8% | routes of similar length | 67.8% | +9.0 pts | 822 here, 163,139 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 83.1% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | +6.6 pts | 355 here, 403,297 there |
| Month: April | 90.2% | routes of similar length | 79.9% | +10.3 pts | 246 here, 226,355 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 901 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
42 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 2,477 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at FLL after arriving from IAD.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.1% | 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 0.77% 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 2,452 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 2,477 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAD → FLL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 86.9% of the time, against 74.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 12.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 86.9% on time from 710 flights
- 9 AM: 86.6% on time from 211 flights
- 10 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 80.2% on time from 371 flights
- 2 PM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 76.8% on time from 831 flights
- 6 PM: 67.6% on time from 179 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why IAD → FLL runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for IAD → FLL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IAD → FLL, at 36.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 86.9% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 74.9%.
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 | 2,405 | 81.8% | 0.71% | -9 min | 7.1% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.5%
- Feb: 87.8%
- Mar: 76.9%
- Apr: 90.2%
- May: 81.0%
- Jun: 77.7%
- Jul: 65.9%
- Aug: 81.6%
- Sep: 80.3%
- Oct: 87.3%
- Nov: 90.6%
- Dec: 79.0%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 24.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.8% against 82.1% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,477 IAD → FLL 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