Route profile
JFK→IAD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New York to Washington, 228 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 47% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,354 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
JFK → IAD arrives on time 81.1% of the time; the return trip, IAD → JFK, arrives on time 72.9% of the time, an 8.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair. JFK → IAD also cancels 1.55% of flights, against 3.33% for IAD → JFK.
JFK → IAD spends 34.3 minutes on the ground on a 228-mile trip: 27.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at JFK and 6.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAD.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability on this route has improved unusually sharply over the past year, a bigger swing than 94% of 5,368 comparable routes.
88.1% on time over the most recent 12 months (2024-09 to 2026-07), against 77.0% in the 12 months before (2023-09 to 2024-08), a change of 11.1 points.
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 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where JFK to IAD differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
JFK to IAD holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 82.2% on time to their 74.1%, a 8.1 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
April is kinder to JFK to IAD than to routes of similar length: 88.3% on time against 78.8%, 9.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
JFK to IAD against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday: Sunday | 82.2% | routes of similar length | 74.1% | +8.1 pts | 191 here, 97,357 there |
| Month: April | 88.3% | routes of similar length | 78.8% | +9.5 pts | 120 here, 55,353 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 228 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 10 min early
Percentiles over 1,354 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAD after arriving from JFK.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 30% | High risk |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.4% | 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 1.55% of the time and diverts 0.22% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,330 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 1,354 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
JFK → IAD flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 85.5% of the time, against 76.1% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 9.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 85.5% on time from 167 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 84.5% on time from 442 flights
- 12 PM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 76.5% on time from 171 flights
- 3 PM: 72.6% on time from 302 flights
- 4 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why JFK → IAD runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
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
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for JFK → IAD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 825 | 77.1% | 1.82% | -8 min | 10.8% |
| Endeavor Air | 349 | 88.2% | 0.86% | -14 min | 3.8% |
SkyWest Airlines flew 70.3% of the 1,174 flights listed.
Endeavor Air arrived on time 11.1 percentage points more often than SkyWest Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly New York to Washington
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LGA→DCA New York to Washington | 14,238 | 76.7% | 4.07% | -9 min | 49 |
| JFK→IAD this route New York to Washington | 1,354 | 81.1% | 1.55% | -10 min | 65 |
JFK → IAD is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 81.1% on time, against 76.7% for LGA → DCA.
Flying to IAD from the New York area? Compare JFK, LGA, EWR for IAD, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 11.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2024-09 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 88.1% against 77.0% in the 12 months before — improving by 11.1 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,354 JFK → IAD 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