Route profile
MIA→DCA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Miami to Washington, 919 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 23% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 11,974 flights. How this is calculated
MIA → DCA arrives on time 74.5% of the time; the return trip, DCA → MIA, arrives on time 77.2% of the time, a 2.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MIA → DCA spends 26.4 minutes on the ground on a 919-mile trip: 20.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MIA and 5.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at DCA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 95% of 5,368 comparable routes.
75.2% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 74.9% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
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.
Why MIA → DCA flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MIA → DCA cancelled 236 of 11,974 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 51. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 86.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 59 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 236 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
204 cancellations, 86.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
18 cancellations, 7.6% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
14 cancellations, 5.9% 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.
236 coded cancellations were recorded on MIA → DCA; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
54 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 11,974 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at DCA after arriving from MIA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.4% | 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 1.97% of the time and diverts 0.54% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 11,673 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 54 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 11,974 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MIA → DCA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.1% of the time, against 62.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 26.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 89.2% on time from 1,054 flights
- 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 88.6% on time from 994 flights
- 9 AM: 82.9% on time from 813 flights
- 10 AM: 85.0% on time from 754 flights
- 11 AM: 76.6% on time from 1,300 flights
- 12 PM: 80.7% on time from 464 flights
- 1 PM: 68.3% on time from 574 flights
- 2 PM: 69.7% on time from 536 flights
- 3 PM: 58.4% on time from 338 flights
- 4 PM: 67.0% on time from 679 flights
- 5 PM: 66.8% on time from 646 flights
- 6 PM: 58.3% on time from 739 flights
- 7 PM: 59.4% on time from 816 flights
- 8 PM: 68.7% on time from 1,061 flights
- 9 PM: 73.4% on time from 989 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MIA → DCA 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 MIA → DCA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MIA → DCA, at 42.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.1% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 62.9%.
How this route holds up in bad weather
July 2023 – July 2026
Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of MIA to DCA: 3.3 times the normal rate at MIA and 4.2 times at DCA. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: MIA 4.5% against 1.3%, DCA 9.3% against 2.2%. Flights that did leave MIA in bad weather arrived on time 50.6% of the time, against 74.1% in normal hours.
Bad weather and normal hours at the airports
Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026| Departures from | MIA | DCA |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 4.5% | 9.3% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.3% | 2.2% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 50.6% | 63.5% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 74.1% | 78.3% |
| Departures in bad weather | 15,746 | 41,449 |
Of the carriers on this route, Delta Air Lines (2.0% cancelled against 4.7% for the other carriers at MIA) cancelled the fewest departures from MIA in bad weather and American Airlines (5.4% cancelled against 4.2% for the other carriers at MIA) the most.
This route’s airlines in bad weather at MIA
All departures from MIA| Airline | Bad-weather departures | Cancelled | Other carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,774 | 2.0%below the others | 4.7% |
| American Airlines | 8,534 | 5.4%above the others | 4.2% |
These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from MIA and DCA, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from MIA on every route.
Weather source and limits. In full: MIA (airlines), DCA, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 10,822 | 73.8% | 2.10% | -5 min | 9.2% |
| Delta Air Lines | 998 | 80.6% | 0.90% | -9 min | 8.0% |
American Airlines flew 91.6% of the 11,820 flights listed. American Airlines cancelled 2.10% of its flights here against 0.90% for Delta Air Lines.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 6.8 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Miami to Washington
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIA→DCA this route Miami to Washington | 11,974 | 74.5% | 1.97% | -5 min | 55 |
| FLL→BWI Fort Lauderdale to Baltimore | 11,051 | 74.2% | 1.99% | -3 min | 56 |
Flying to DCA from the Miami area? Compare MIA, FLL for DCA, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
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 8.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 74.3%
- Feb: 76.1%
- Mar: 71.5%
- Apr: 76.4%
- May: 72.5%
- Jun: 70.3%
- Jul: 63.8%
- Aug: 68.5%
- Sep: 78.7%
- Oct: 82.2%
- Nov: 81.5%
- Dec: 80.2%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 18.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 65.8% from 241 flights
- August 2023: 72.0% from 271 flights
- September 2023: 74.5% from 260 flights
- October 2023: 84.2% from 299 flights
- November 2023: 84.2% from 316 flights
- December 2023: 83.8% from 321 flights
- January 2024: 68.2% from 338 flights
- February 2024: 74.9% from 317 flights
- March 2024: 71.7% from 341 flights
- April 2024: 74.6% from 325 flights
- May 2024: 64.3% from 332 flights
- June 2024: 64.7% from 300 flights
- July 2024: 65.9% from 316 flights
- August 2024: 60.4% from 330 flights
- September 2024: 81.2% from 295 flights
- October 2024: 83.2% from 326 flights
- November 2024: 84.6% from 339 flights
- December 2024: 80.6% from 353 flights
- January 2025: 80.7% from 368 flights
- February 2025: 77.5% from 334 flights
- March 2025: 74.0% from 372 flights
- April 2025: 73.8% from 325 flights
- May 2025: 72.3% from 339 flights
- June 2025: 71.5% from 326 flights
- July 2025: 58.4% from 334 flights
- August 2025: 73.4% from 336 flights
- September 2025: 79.6% from 326 flights
- October 2025: 79.3% from 337 flights
- November 2025: 75.2% from 310 flights
- December 2025: 76.4% from 344 flights
- January 2026: 73.7% from 341 flights
- February 2026: 75.8% from 303 flights
- March 2026: 68.6% from 337 flights
- April 2026: 80.5% from 329 flights
- May 2026: 80.6% from 339 flights
- June 2026: 73.9% from 326 flights
- July 2026: 65.4% from 328 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 75.2% against 74.9% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 11,974 MIA → DCA 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