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PHL 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
PHL

Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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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 PHL DCA
On-Time Rate (higher is better) 81.3% 80.8%
Avg Delay (lower is better) 84.7 min 79.6 min
Delay Rate (lower is better) 18.7% 19.2%
Cancellation Rate (lower is better) 1.19% 1.52%
Total Flights 1,060,086 1,425,060
Delayed Flights 198,194 274,313
Cancelled Flights 12,586 21,697
Top Delay Cause Late Aircraft Late Aircraft

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

Delay Cause Breakdown

PHL - Philadelphia, PA

Late Aircraft 41.1%
Carrier 31.7%
NAS 22.4%
Weather 4.7%
Security 0.2%

DCA - Washington, DC

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

Top Routes

Top routes from PHL

Route Flights On-Time
MCO → PHL
Philadelphia
32,254 74.8%
PHL → MCO
Orlando
32,240 76.4%
ATL → PHL
Philadelphia
32,104 80.2%
PHL → ATL
Atlanta
32,089 83.4%
PHL → BOS
Boston
26,321 82%
BOS → PHL
Philadelphia
26,282 83.5%

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.