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DCA vs MDW - Airport Comparison

Select two airports to compare on-time performance, delays, cancellations, and top routes using U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) data (2020–2025) across all 50 states. See our methodology for how metrics are computed.

Airport A
DCA

Washington, DC

Washington, Virginia

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Airport B
MDW

Chicago, IL

Chicago, Illinois

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Key Performance Metrics

BTS on-time performance data, 2020–2025 cumulative.

Metric DCA MDW
On-Time Rate (higher is better) 80.8% 78.4%
Avg Delay (lower is better) 79.6 min 59.1 min
Delay Rate (lower is better) 19.2% 21.6%
Cancellation Rate (lower is better) 1.52% 1.46%
Total Flights 1,425,060 880,912
Delayed Flights 274,313 190,033
Cancelled Flights 21,697 12,896
Top Delay Cause Late Aircraft Late Aircraft

✓ / ▲ indicates the more favorable value. Data: BTS On-Time Performance, 2020–2025.

Delay Cause Breakdown

DCA - Washington, DC

Late Aircraft 46.4%
Carrier 28.7%
NAS 19.7%
Weather 5.0%
Security 0.2%

MDW - Chicago, IL

Late Aircraft 41.8%
Carrier 38.5%
NAS 16.2%
Weather 3.3%
Security 0.2%

Top Routes

Top routes from DCA

Route Flights On-Time
BOS → DCA
Washington
49,205 81.6%
DCA → BOS
Boston
49,133 80.5%
ATL → DCA
Washington
35,757 79.9%
DCA → ATL
Atlanta
35,728 83.9%
ORD → DCA
Washington
33,643 79%
DCA → ORD
Chicago
33,634 83.8%

Top routes from MDW

Route Flights On-Time
ATL → MDW
Chicago
19,666 81.1%
MDW → ATL
Atlanta
19,604 82.3%
MDW → DEN
Denver
17,682 79.2%
DEN → MDW
Chicago
17,568 76.2%
MCO → MDW
Chicago
17,024 77.2%
MDW → LAS
Las Vegas
16,984 77.2%

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), On-Time Performance Data (2020–2025) Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), On-Time Performance Data (2020–2025) On-time rates exclude cancelled and diverted flights. PlainFlights is not affiliated with BTS or the DOT

Every figure on PlainFlights is rendered directly from BTS On-Time Performance data, no number is typed in by an editor. This tool queries live on-time, delay, and cancellation figures for the two selected airports from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.