Ronald Reagan Washington National in September 2023

80.2%departed on time

BTS: A flight is counted as on time if it arrived less than 15 minutes after its scheduled time. Only carriers with at least 0.5 percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenue report.

In September 2023, reporting carriers scheduled 11,513 domestic departures from Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA). 80.2% left less than 15 minutes late and 80.3% reached their destination on time; 2.4% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 80.5% of flights departed on time and 80.1% arrived on time, so DCA departures were level with the national departure figure.

Flights arriving at DCA that month were on time 78.5% of the time (11,512 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, late-arriving aircraft 41%, air carrier 30% and national aviation system 21%.

On time 80.3%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 17.2%
Cancelled 2.4%
Diverted 0.2%

Every scheduled departure from DCA in September 2023, judged by arrival at the destination.

September 2023 against a year earlier, the airport's year and the nation

Measure	Sep 2023	Year earlier	DCA, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, Sep 2023
Departed on time	80.2%	—	70.9%	80.5%
Arrived on time	80.3%	—	70.1%	80.1%
Cancelled	2.4%	—	3.6%	1.2%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	15.2 min	—	21.2 min	14.1 min
Scheduled departures a day	384	—	390	18,978
Scheduled departures	11,513	—	142,173	569,338

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
OH PSA Airlines	2,947	26%	80.1%	1.2 min	2.2%
AA American Airlines	2,423	21%	77.5%	7.1 min	2.1%
YX Republic Airline	2,219	19%	82.6%	-3.1 min	4.6%
WN Southwest Airlines	1,310	11%	81.1%	5.5 min	0.8%
B6 JetBlue Airways	719	6%	65.9%	22.2 min	3.8%
DL Delta Air Lines	666	6%	91.0%	0.0 min	0.5%
UA United Airlines	483	4%	83.4%	8.9 min	1.0%
MQ Envoy Air	309	3%	80.6%	2.3 min	1.0%
9E Endeavor Air	167	1%	86.8%	-5.7 min	1.2%
AS Alaska Airlines	150	1%	85.3%	-2.0 min	0.0%
F9 Frontier Airlines	90	1%	83.3%	-2.8 min	2.2%
OO SkyWest Airlines	30	0%	93.3%	-17.1 min	0.0%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
DCA–BOS	Washington to Boston	733	63.6%	23.9 min	4.5%
DCA–ATL	Washington to Atlanta	573	89.0%	-1.6 min	1.0%
DCA–ORD	Washington to Chicago	520	82.9%	3.0 min	1.2%
DCA–LGA	Washington to New York	407	71.7%	13.0 min	6.4%
DCA–MCO	Washington to Orlando	328	78.4%	11.5 min	1.8%
DCA–BNA	Washington to Nashville	302	87.1%	-2.4 min	0.7%
DCA–CLT	Washington to Charlotte	265	81.5%	2.6 min	3.0%
DCA–DFW	Washington to Dallas/Fort Worth	262	88.9%	-5.1 min	0.8%
DCA–MIA	Washington to Miami	262	76.3%	7.7 min	1.5%
DCA–JFK	Washington to New York	240	71.7%	7.4 min	10.0%
DCA–RDU	Washington to Raleigh/Durham	239	81.6%	-1.3 min	1.7%
DCA–DTW	Washington to Detroit	230	87.4%	0.6 min	0.9%

By scheduled departure hour

On-time share:under 62%6270768288% and over

Share of departures that left less than 15 minutes late, by scheduled hour (local time), September 2023.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	National, Sep 2023	Minutes
Air carrier	30.0%	36.4%	47,187
Late-arriving aircraft	41.3%	38.3%	64,975
National Aviation System	20.7%	19.9%	32,620
Extreme weather	7.6%	5.1%	11,990
Security	0.3%	0.2%	445

157,217 delay minutes on 1,975 flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late and carried a cause report. Carriers assign the categories; see what each category means.

Questions and answers

How many flights left DCA on time in September 2023?

80.2% of 11,513 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 80.3% reached their destination on time. The national figures that month were 80.5% and 80.1%.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

September 2022 is outside the 36 months on file, or the airport had too few reported flights that month.

Provenance

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, file for September 2023; public domain. Domestic scheduled flights by reporting carriers, totals and averages only. The site's data runs through July 2026. Full record for DCA · methodology · corrections.