Route profile
LAX→IAD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Los Angeles to Washington, 2,288 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 92% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,819 flights. How this is calculated
LAX → IAD arrives on time 85.4% of the time; the return trip, IAD → LAX, arrives on time 81.8% of the time, a 3.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
LAX → IAD spends 27.5 minutes on the ground on a 2,288-mile trip: 19.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LAX and 7.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAD.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 96% of 4,467 comparable routes.
87.4% on time on the best day (Tuesday) against 83.6% on the worst (Saturday).
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where LAX to IAD differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LAX to IAD is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 91.4% arrive on time, 17 points ahead of the 74.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 20.7 points.
LAX to IAD struggles most at 8 AM: 78.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5 points behind the 83.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.3 points.
LAX to IAD holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 84.9% on time to their 76.1%, a 8.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
June is kinder to LAX to IAD than to routes of similar length: 86.8% on time against 74.3%, 12.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 14.1 points.
United Airlines does better on LAX to IAD than on its routes of similar length: 86.2% on time here, 81.2% there, 5 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
LAX to IAD against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 91.4% | routes of similar length | 74.4% | +17.0 pts | 663 here, 60,022 there |
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 78.6% | routes of similar length | 83.6% | −5.0 pts | 1,424 here, 112,452 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 84.9% | routes of similar length | 76.1% | +8.8 pts | 1,146 here, 172,676 there |
| Month: June | 86.8% | routes of similar length | 74.3% | +12.5 pts | 707 here, 104,647 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 86.2% | routes of similar length | 81.2% | +5.0 pts | 6,734 here, 240,266 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 2,288 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.
Why LAX → IAD flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LAX → IAD cancelled 56 of 7,819 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 140. The reason filed most often was the airline, 76.8% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 182 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 56 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
43 cancellations, 76.8% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
13 cancellations, 23.2% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
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.
56 coded cancellations were recorded on LAX → IAD; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
25 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 7,819 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAD after arriving from LAX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 29% | High risk |
| 45 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.3% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.1% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.5% | 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 0.72% of the time and diverts 0.33% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,737 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 25 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,819 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LAX → IAD flights departing 3–6 PM arrived on time 89.8% of the time, against 80.7% for 5–9 AM departures, a gap of 9.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 96.3% on time from 191 flights
- 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 78.6% on time from 1,445 flights
- 9 AM: 84.7% on time from 256 flights
- 10 AM: 87.8% on time from 801 flights
- 11 AM: 83.6% on time from 292 flights
- 12 PM: 86.7% on time from 492 flights
- 1 PM: 84.0% on time from 849 flights
- 2 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 91.4% on time from 666 flights
- 5 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 86.5% on time from 1,022 flights
- 10 PM: 86.0% on time from 547 flights
- 11 PM: 87.3% on time from 1,134 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why LAX → IAD 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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for LAX → IAD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on LAX → IAD, at 40.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 3–6 PM departures arrived on time 89.8% of the time and 5–9 AM departures 80.7%.
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 | 6,808 | 86.2% | 0.79% | -10 min | 4.0% |
| Alaska Airlines | 895 | 80.4% | 0.22% | -4 min | 5.3% |
United Airlines flew 88.4% of the 7,703 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 5.8 percentage points more often than Alaska Airlines on this route.
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 Saturday the least, a gap of 3.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.4%
- Feb: 85.7%
- Mar: 80.9%
- Apr: 92.8%
- May: 89.2%
- Jun: 86.8%
- Jul: 76.9%
- Aug: 84.7%
- Sep: 89.9%
- Oct: 91.6%
- Nov: 88.7%
- Dec: 78.4%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 15.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 76.4% from 236 flights
- August 2023: 84.0% from 246 flights
- September 2023: 84.2% from 197 flights
- October 2023: 88.8% from 214 flights
- November 2023: 90.7% from 193 flights
- December 2023: 69.1% from 188 flights
- January 2024: 73.9% from 146 flights
- February 2024: 81.5% from 147 flights
- March 2024: 78.0% from 215 flights
- April 2024: 92.2% from 231 flights
- May 2024: 89.3% from 244 flights
- June 2024: 87.1% from 236 flights
- July 2024: 78.2% from 248 flights
- August 2024: 83.7% from 235 flights
- September 2024: 93.5% from 215 flights
- October 2024: 90.4% from 240 flights
- November 2024: 91.2% from 229 flights
- December 2024: 78.5% from 230 flights
- January 2025: 84.2% from 161 flights
- February 2025: 87.5% from 145 flights
- March 2025: 88.3% from 205 flights
- April 2025: 92.1% from 242 flights
- May 2025: 87.4% from 253 flights
- June 2025: 82.6% from 228 flights
- July 2025: 71.0% from 221 flights
- August 2025: 86.7% from 198 flights
- September 2025: 91.9% from 174 flights
- October 2025: 96.0% from 202 flights
- November 2025: 83.8% from 198 flights
- December 2025: 86.4% from 215 flights
- January 2026: 82.0% from 174 flights
- February 2026: 88.0% from 158 flights
- March 2026: 75.8% from 184 flights
- April 2026: 94.2% from 225 flights
- May 2026: 90.8% from 252 flights
- June 2026: 90.4% from 253 flights
- July 2026: 81.2% from 241 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 87.5% against 85.9% in the 12 months before — improving by 1.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,819 LAX → 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