Carrier performance at one airport
YX→RDU
Republic Airways at Raleigh-Durham International
- Departures
- 7,491
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 12
- Rank here
- #7 of 11
Republic Airways at Raleigh carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.3% 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 C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 7,491 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 11,943 at 84.7% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Republic Airways runs 4 points behind the 78.9% weighted average across all carriers at RDU. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
74.4%
7,147 completed departures
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
4.34%
At RDU, this carrier only
Rank here
#7
Of 11 carriers clearing the floor at RDU
These figures cover 7,491 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at RDU, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 84.7% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 63.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,695 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 11,943 | 84.7% | 80 min | 1.72% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,220 | 81.3% | 93 min | 1.29% | B |
| American Airlines | 9,463 | 80.6% | 97 min | 1.89% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 8,886 | 79.8% | 52 min | 1.29% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 686 | 75.8% | 51 min | 1.02% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 3,064 | 75.5% | 80 min | 4.14% | B− |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 7,491 | 74.4% | 76 min | 4.34% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 4,324 | 73.4% | 93 min | 2.52% | C |
| Envoy Air | 1,135 | 71.3% | 77 min | 3.00% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 405 | 64.2% | 75 min | 7.65% | D− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,695 | 63.9% | 95 min | 6.90% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 7.7% 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 RDU
Republic Airways operates 12 routes out of RDU 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RDU to LGA · New York | 1,919 | 69.5% | 80 min | 6.57% | C− |
| RDU to JFK · New York | 1,375 | 77.2% | 74 min | 4.58% | B− |
| RDU to ORD · Chicago | 1,155 | 71.6% | 80 min | 3.98% | C− |
| RDU to BNA · Nashville | 958 | 79.2% | 72 min | 1.88% | B |
| RDU to PIT · Pittsburgh | 686 | 81.4% | 68 min | 1.31% | B |
| RDU to DCA · Washington | 478 | 56.1% | 71 min | 6.28% | D− |
| RDU to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 271 | 86.4% | 67 min | 4.80% | A− |
| RDU to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample | 221 | 84.4% | 69 min | 3.62% | B− |
| RDU to IAD · Washingtonthin sample | 197 | 80.8% | 82 min | 2.03% | B |
| RDU to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 134 | 81.1% | 87 min | 5.22% | B− |
| RDU to MCO · Orlandothin sample | 67 | 80.6% | 34 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| RDU to MIA · Miamithin sample | 30 | 58.6% | 49 min | 3.33% | D− |
Flight by flight
Republic Airways flight numbers from RDU
2 Republic Airways flight numbers leaving RDU flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
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 28 points, against 21 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,100 flights87.0%
- 8am–11am1,227 flights87.4%
- 11am–2pm1,204 flights74.7%
- 2pm–5pm1,637 flights71.7%
- 5pm–8pm1,803 flights63.9%
- 8pm–5am520 flights59.9%
Scale runs 50% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 59.9% on time, against 87.4% for the 8am–11am 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 1,803 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 66.8% on time, against 83.9% in May. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 710 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 34%National Airspace System
- 16%Carrier
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 138,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. The split is drawn from 138,149 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.34%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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.
10.6% 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.
The sample behind these figures is 7,491 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.34% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 7,147 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Republic Airways at RDU
How often is Republic Airways at RDU 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 25.6% of the 7,491 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 RDU?
Delta Air Lines leads at 84.7% on time across 11,943 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 63.9%, a gap of 21 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 RDU?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 87.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 59.9%, 28 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 RDU?
December is the weakest month at 66.8% on time, compared with 83.9% in May. Across the year that is 17 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
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.