New York to Washington, DC

Between New York and Washington, DC, 2.1 million passengers flew nonstop in 2025, on 33 thousand flights of about 215 miles and 47 minutes in the air. The average passenger accounted for about 86 kg of CO2 from the fuel burned, from 58 kg on United Airlines to 159 kg on PSA Airlines.

86 kgCO2 per passenger, average
215 milesabout 47 minutes in the air
2.1 millionpassengers in 2025
74%of seats filled

CO2 per passenger, airline by airline

Kilograms of CO2 per passenger, one way, 2025. Fuel burned only. Less is better.

New York to Washington, DC by airline, 2025

Airline	Share of passengers	Flights (thousands)	Main aircraft	Seats per flight	Seats filled	kg CO2 per passenger
Republic Airways	42%	15.4	Embraer 175	75	77%	88
United Airlines	17%	2.9	Boeing 737-900ER, Boeing 737 MAX 8	171	73%	58
Southwest Airlines	13%	2.4	Boeing 737-700, Boeing 737-800	161	72%	60
GoJet Airlines	10%	5.7		50	77%	126
PSA Airlines	5%	2.5		66	67%	159
Mesa Airlines	4%	1.3	Embraer 175	74	84%	76
Endeavor Air	3%	1.3		76	75%	99
JetBlue	3%	0.7	Airbus A220-300	137	58%	87

What explains the differences

It's number 62 of the 100 busiest city pairs by passengers, and number 99 for the lowest CO2 per mile flown (0.40 kg per passenger-mile, number 1 being the lowest). A typical route of 215 miles in this set comes out at about 55 kg, so this one is 57% above it.

The flights use more than one pair of airports: DCA to LGA (25%), IAD to EWR (19%), DCA to JFK (14%). The figures here cover all of them.

The airlines on this route differ by 176% per passenger. United Airlines burned 742 gallons per flight and 125 passengers on each, and PSA Airlines 717 gallons and 44 passengers. The gap comes from how many passengers share each flight, not from fuel burned per flight. United Airlines flew 73% full here against 67% for PSA Airlines.

For comparison, the EPA default factor for a flight of this length (0.207 kg per passenger-mile) would give 45 kg. The EPA figure is a national average for flights of that length. The measured figure for this route is 94% higher.

2019 compared with 2025

In 2019 the route carried 2.4 million passengers on 42 thousand flights. In 2025 it carried 2.1 million, down 10%, on 33 thousand flights, down 21%. The average flight had 80 seats then and 87 now, and 71% of them were filled against 74%.

CO2 per passenger was 90 kg in 2019 and 86 kg in 2025, down 3.7%. Fuel burned per flight was up 10.1% (521 gallons to 573) and passengers per flight were up 14.2% (57 to 65). The distance flown was about the same (213 miles then, 215 now).

Republic Airways led in both years, with 26% of passengers in 2019 and 42% in 2025. Endeavor Air lost the most, 13% to 3%. GoJet Airlines and JetBlue didn't have 1% of the passengers in 2019 and now together carry 13%. American Airlines and CommuteAir and Delta Air Lines and ExpressJet no longer reach 1% of passengers, having had 20% in 2019.

Airline by airline, Republic Airways went from 112 kg to 88 kg per passenger (73 seats per flight to 75, main aircraft Embraer 175 in both years); PSA Airlines went from 114 kg to 159 kg per passenger (52 seats per flight to 66, main aircraft unlisted aircraft in both years).

New York to Washington, DC, 2019 and 2025

Measure	2019	2025
Passengers (thousands)	2,353	2,111
Flights (thousands)	41.6	32.7
Seats filled	71%	74%
Gallons of fuel per flight	521	573
kg CO2 per passenger	90	86

Kilograms of CO2 per passenger on the airlines that flew the route in both years. 2019 figures use that year's filings and estimated aircraft fuel rates, with type-average replacements for missing or outlying filings as described in the methodology. Less is better.

New York to Washington, DC and back: time in the air

The time in the air is almost the same each way: 49 minutes on average from New York to Washington, DC and 46 minutes back. A difference of 3 minutes is within what routing and congestion alone produce.

Time in the air by direction, 2025

Direction	Average minutes in the air	Flights
New York to Washington, DC	48.8	16,218
Washington, DC to New York	45.9	16,442

Fly or drive

Driving is about 252 miles by road, which we estimate as 1.17 times the straight-line distance. An average car emits about 75 kg of CO2 on the trip, at the EPA figure of 0.297 kg per vehicle-mile. Alone, that's 14% less than the 86 kg for a passenger on the flight.

Driving alone already beats the flight on CO2 here, but it takes about 4.2 hours of driving at 60 miles an hour against 47 minutes in the air.

A direct Amtrak train serves both cities. Using the EPA figure for the Northeast Corridor (0.023 kg per passenger-mile, mostly electric) and a rail distance about equal to the road distance, a train passenger would account for roughly 6 kg, 93% less than the flight.

CO2 per person, New York to Washington, DC. Driving figures divide one car's emissions between the people in it. See flying vs driving for other trip lengths.

Flights are listed under the airline that operates them, so regional flying appears under the regional. How the CO2 and drive figures are worked out is in the methodology.

Routes with shared cities or nearby CO2 per mile

New York to Miami158 kg CO2 per passenger over 1,082 miles New York to Orlando141 kg CO2 per passenger over 947 miles New York to Chicago125 kg CO2 per passenger over 730 miles New York to Atlanta124 kg CO2 per passenger over 758 miles Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston67 kg CO2 per passenger over 233 miles Honolulu to Kahului39 kg CO2 per passenger over 100 miles New York to Boston76 kg CO2 per passenger over 187 miles

Airports on this route: Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, LaGuardia Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Airport and airline references

Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), T-100 traffic and Schedule T-2 fuel filings; US EPA transport emission factors. See the methodology.

See all routes, or how the airlines compare overall on the airline pages.