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IAH vs DCA - 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
IAH

Houston, TX

Houston, Texas

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Airport B
DCA

Washington, DC

Washington, Virginia

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Key Performance Metrics

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

Metric IAH DCA
On-Time Rate (higher is better) 81.6% 80.8%
Avg Delay (lower is better) 79.8 min 79.6 min
Delay Rate (lower is better) 18.4% 19.2%
Cancellation Rate (lower is better) 1.13% 1.52%
Total Flights 1,404,392 1,425,060
Delayed Flights 258,419 274,313
Cancelled Flights 15,858 21,697
Top Delay Cause Carrier Late Aircraft

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

Delay Cause Breakdown

IAH - Houston, TX

Carrier 38.4%
Late Aircraft 34.9%
NAS 18.1%
Weather 8.6%
Security 0.0%

DCA - Washington, DC

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

Top Routes

Top routes from IAH

Route Flights On-Time
IAH → DFW
Dallas/Fort Worth
30,197 76.6%
DFW → IAH
Houston
30,188 76.3%
IAH → LAX
Los Angeles
28,113 83.4%
LAX → IAH
Houston
28,102 86.2%
IAH → DEN
Denver
27,947 80%
IAH → ORD
Chicago
27,946 81%

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%

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.