Carrier performance at one airport
YX→DCA
Republic Airways at Ronald Reagan Washington National
- Departures
- 27,158
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #5 of 10
Republic Airways at Washington carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 27,158 flights, of which Frontier Airlines flew 983 at 78.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Republic Airways runs 3 points ahead of the 72.1% weighted average across all carriers at DCA. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
75.0%
25,892 completed departures
Avg delay
69 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
4.51%
At DCA, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at DCA
These figures cover 27,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at DCA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Frontier Airlines arrives on time 78.1% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 65.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 40,071 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier Airlines | 983 | 78.1% | 81 min | 1.02% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 9,579 | 77.9% | 88 min | 2.47% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,887 | 77.6% | 84 min | 1.63% | B |
| Envoy Air | 4,875 | 76.9% | 69 min | 3.20% | B− |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 27,158 | 75.0% | 69 min | 4.51% | B− |
| American Airlines | 27,638 | 74.7% | 84 min | 2.57% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 16,026 | 72.7% | 63 min | 2.23% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 2,182 | 71.9% | 56 min | 1.01% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 6,726 | 67.6% | 83 min | 4.07% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 40,071 | 65.9% | 82 min | 6.39% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.4% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where Republic Airways flies from DCA
Republic Airways operates 25 routes out of DCA with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DCA to LGA · New York | 4,703 | 65.1% | 78 min | 6.53% | C− |
| DCA to BOS · Boston | 3,998 | 76.9% | 70 min | 4.40% | B− |
| DCA to JFK · New York | 2,041 | 76.0% | 71 min | 5.98% | B− |
| DCA to IND · Indianapolis | 1,854 | 77.3% | 63 min | 3.34% | B− |
| DCA to BNA · Nashville | 1,845 | 81.8% | 64 min | 2.44% | B |
| DCA to ORD · Chicago | 1,155 | 75.6% | 75 min | 6.06% | B− |
| DCA to CMH · Columbus | 989 | 80.1% | 65 min | 2.63% | B |
| DCA to PIT · Pittsburgh | 749 | 70.9% | 61 min | 3.87% | C− |
| DCA to IAH · Houston | 511 | 75.7% | 56 min | 5.09% | B− |
| DCA to RDU · Raleigh | 476 | 70.1% | 74 min | 5.25% | C− |
| DCA to ATL · Atlanta | 474 | 78.3% | 56 min | 3.38% | B− |
| DCA to MEM · Memphis | 471 | 73.6% | 70 min | 4.88% | C− |
| DCA to SDF · Louisville | 465 | 72.5% | 76 min | 5.38% | C− |
| DCA to BDL · Hartford | 402 | 74.0% | 54 min | 2.24% | C |
| DCA to MSN · Madison | 375 | 76.0% | 82 min | 2.40% | B |
| DCA to CHS · Charlestonthin sample | 346 | 81.6% | 76 min | 3.76% | B− |
| DCA to LEX · Lexingtonthin sample | 304 | 74.7% | 98 min | 3.29% | C− |
| DCA to OMA · Omahathin sample | 304 | 85.5% | 67 min | 2.30% | A |
| DCA to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 292 | 90.4% | 52 min | 3.77% | A− |
| DCA to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 277 | 81.2% | 72 min | 3.25% | B− |
| DCA to BUF · Buffalothin sample | 265 | 64.7% | 55 min | 3.77% | D− |
| DCA to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 243 | 78.4% | 58 min | 4.12% | B− |
| DCA to EYW · Key Westthin sample | 238 | 83.1% | 42 min | 0.42% | B+ |
| DCA to HHH · Hilton Head Islandthin sample | 226 | 84.0% | 69 min | 1.77% | B |
| DCA to DSM · Des Moinesthin sample | 221 | 73.5% | 63 min | 4.52% | C− |
Flight by flight
Republic Airways flight numbers from DCA
13 Republic Airways flight numbers leaving DCA flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
- YX 4686to BNA 11:3484.0%
- YX 5707to BNA 20:4077.4%
- YX 5687to BOS 08:2986.6%
- YX 5698to BOS 06:5990.7%
- YX 5710to BOS 06:0093.0%
- YX 4701to IND 10:3086.7%
- YX 4781to JFK 17:4561.0%
- YX 5713to JFK 17:0066.8%
- YX 5729to LEX 21:0574.7%
- YX 5763to LGA 17:4047.8%
- YX 5768to LGA 20:4051.8%
- YX 4763to PIT 22:0064.7%
- YX 4672to SDF 19:4568.8%
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 29 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am3,528 flights90.3%
- 8am–11am5,401 flights83.2%
- 11am–2pm4,364 flights77.1%
- 2pm–5pm4,448 flights69.0%
- 5pm–8pm4,885 flights61.7%
- 8pm–5am4,532 flights70.3%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.7% on time, against 90.3% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 5,401 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 66.8% on time, against 81.2% in September. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. October was the busiest month here, with 2,450 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 32%National Airspace System
- 20%Carrier
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 445,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 444,745 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.51%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in twenty cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
9.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
27,158 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.51% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 25,892 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Republic Airways at DCA
How often is Republic Airways at DCA delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 25.0% of the 27,158 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Republic Airways at DCA?
Frontier Airlines leads at 78.1% on time across 983 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 65.9%, a gap of 12 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on Republic Airways at DCA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.3% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 61.7%, 29 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are December delays on Republic Airways at DCA?
December is the weakest month at 66.8% on time, compared with 81.2% in September. Across the year that is 14 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- Republic Airways network-wide record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) all carriers
- DCA to LGA route record65.1%
- DCA to BOS route record76.9%
- DCA to JFK route record76.0%
- DCA to IND route record77.3%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Do airlines run better at their own hubs?
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.