Route profile
RSW→IAD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Fort Myers to Washington, 891 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 89% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,513 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
RSW → IAD arrives on time 88.6% of the time; the return trip, IAD → RSW, arrives on time 85.9% of the time, a 2.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
RSW → IAD spends 23.6 minutes on the ground on an 891-mile trip: 16.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at RSW and 7.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAD.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Unlike most, it barely matters what time you fly this route, a steadier spread than 96% of 4,023 comparable routes.
93.0% on time for 9 AM–12 PM departures, against 87.0% for 12–3 PM, a narrow gap either way.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where RSW to IAD differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
RSW to IAD is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 88.3% arrive on time, 20.5 points ahead of the 67.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 19.7 points.
RSW to IAD holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 90.8% on time to their 75.9%, a 14.9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 14.6 points.
July is kinder to RSW to IAD than to routes of similar length: 87.9% on time against 68.4%, 19.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 18.2 points.
United Airlines does better on RSW to IAD than on its routes of similar length: 88.6% on time here, 80.5% there, 8.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 8.7 points.
RSW to IAD against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 88.3% | routes of similar length | 67.8% | +20.5 pts | 248 here, 182,423 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 90.8% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | +14.9 pts | 217 here, 429,380 there |
| Month: July | 87.9% | routes of similar length | 68.4% | +19.5 pts | 124 here, 318,073 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 88.6% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | +8.1 pts | 1,494 here, 477,574 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 891 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
18 min late
against a median of 13 min early
Percentiles over 1,513 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAD after arriving from RSW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 21% | High risk |
| 45 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 7.5% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.6% | 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 1.12% of the time and diverts 0.13% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,494 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 18 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,513 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
RSW → IAD flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 93.0% of the time, against 87.0% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 6.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 95.0% on time from 142 flights
- 10 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 87.9% on time from 165 flights
- 1 PM: 87.7% on time from 731 flights
- 2 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 88.3% on time from 250 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why RSW → 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 RSW → IAD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on RSW → IAD, at 43.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, though departure time makes little difference here: the best and worst windows are 6 points apart.
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 | 1,513 | 88.6% | 1.12% | -13 min | 4.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 11.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 89.3% against 86.7% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,513 RSW → 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