In-air flight time: 4 hours, 30 minutes
From gate to gate: 4 hours, 50 minutes
Constant 500 mph: 4 hours, 39 minutes

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Flight map from SEA to DCA

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Flying time from SEA to DCA

The total flight duration from SEA to DCA is 4 hours, 30 minutes.

This is the average in-air flight time (wheels up to wheels down on the runway) based on actual flights taken over the past year. It covers the entire time on a typical commercial flight including take-off and landing.

If you're planning a trip, you should also factor in extra time for the plane to pull back from the gate and taxi to the runway, as well as reaching the destination gate after landing. If you include this extra time on the tarmac, the average total elapsed time from gate to gate flying from SEA to DCA is 4 hours, 50 minutes.

Finally, pilots might want to estimate the flight time using an average flight speed for a commercial airliner of 500 mph, which is equivalent to 805 km/h or 434 knots. If you don't add any extra time to increase or decrease speed for take-off and landing, then at constant speed your flight time would be 4 hours, 39 minutes.

Note that if you fly the other direction, the flight time from DCA to SEA would be 5 hours, 17 minutes due to the effect of winds and the jet stream.

If you're booking a flight, make sure you check the scheduled departure and arrival times. You should also factor in airport wait times and possible equipment or weather delays. If you're trying to figure out what time you'll arrive at the destination, you may want to see if there's a time difference between SEA and DCA.

The calculation of flight time is based on the straight line distance from SEA to DCA ("as the crow flies"), which is about 2,328 miles or 3 747 kilometers.

Your trip begins at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle, Washington.
It ends at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, District of Columbia.

Your flight direction from SEA to DCA is East (88 degrees from North).

The flight time calculator measures the average flight duration between points. It uses the great circle formula to compute the travel mileage.

Flight time calculator

Travelmath provides an online flight time calculator for all types of travel routes. You can enter airports, cities, states, countries, or zip codes to find the flying time between any two points. The database uses the great circle distance and the average airspeed of a commercial airliner to figure out how long a typical flight would take. Find your travel time to estimate the length of a flight between airports, or ask how long it takes to fly from one city to another.