Route profile
LGA→IAD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New York to Washington, 229 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 18% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,791 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
LGA → IAD arrives on time 80.1% of the time; the return trip, IAD → LGA, arrives on time 75.9% of the time, a 4.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
LGA → IAD spends 32.1 minutes on the ground on a 229-mile trip: 23.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LGA and 8.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAD.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where LGA to IAD differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LGA to IAD is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 75.6% arrive on time, 7.4 points ahead of the 68.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.8 points.
LGA to IAD struggles most at 2 PM: 68.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 7.1 points behind the 75.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
LGA to IAD holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 78.7% on time to their 74.1%, a 4.6 points lead.
February is kinder to LGA to IAD than to routes of similar length: 89.3% on time against 81.3%, 8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.9 points.
Republic Airways does better on LGA to IAD than on its routes of similar length: 80.2% on time here, 78.0% there, 2.2 points apart.
LGA to IAD against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 75.6% | routes of similar length | 68.2% | +7.4 pts | 586 here, 40,117 there |
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 68.3% | routes of similar length | 75.4% | −7.1 pts | 843 here, 41,281 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 78.7% | routes of similar length | 74.1% | +4.6 pts | 389 here, 97,159 there |
| Month: February | 89.3% | routes of similar length | 81.3% | +8.0 pts | 196 here, 48,176 there |
| Airline: Republic Airways | 80.2% | routes of similar length | 78.0% | +2.2 pts | 2,655 here, 65,046 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 229 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 LGA → IAD flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LGA → IAD cancelled 125 of 2,791 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 22. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 52.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 43 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 125 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
65 cancellations, 52.0% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
57 cancellations, 45.6% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
3 cancellations, 2.4% 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.
125 coded cancellations were recorded on LGA → IAD; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
48 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 2,791 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAD after arriving from LGA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.0% | 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 4.48% of the time and diverts 0.07% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,664 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 48 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,791 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LGA → IAD flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.0% of the time, against 68.3% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 24.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 93.1% on time from 729 flights
- 7 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 86.9% on time from 477 flights
- 11 AM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 68.3% on time from 876 flights
- 3 PM to 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 75.6% on time from 632 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why LGA → IAD 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 LGA → IAD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on LGA → IAD, at 53.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 93.0% of the time and 12–3 PM departures 68.3%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 2,782 | 80.2% | 4.49% | -10 min | 8.2% |
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 |
| LGA→IAD this route New York to Washington | 2,791 | 80.1% | 4.48% | -10 min | 52 |
Flying to IAD from the New York area? Compare LGA, EWR, JFK for IAD, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 9.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 83.7%
- Feb: 89.3%
- Mar: 80.6%
- Apr: 86.4%
- May: 77.6%
- Jun: 75.0%
- Jul: 73.5%
- Aug: 78.9%
- Sep: 79.3%
- Oct: 83.3%
- Nov: 80.8%
- Dec: 75.8%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 15.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (5)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (31)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (4)
- October 2023: no flights recorded
- November 2023: no flights recorded
- December 2023: too few flights to score (28)
- January 2024: 86.1% from 183 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (102)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- April 2024: 84.9% from 120 flights
- May 2024: 79.2% from 121 flights
- June 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- July 2024: 77.5% from 124 flights
- August 2024: 76.1% from 124 flights
- September 2024: too few flights to score (106)
- October 2024: 88.5% from 122 flights
- November 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- December 2024: 79.5% from 123 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (44)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (29)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (21)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (8)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (41)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (59)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (43)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (107)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (100)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (87)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (107)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (80)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (73)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (96)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (20)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (96)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (60)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (62)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.8% against 77.6% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,791 LGA → 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