Carrier route record
YXBOS→DCA
Republic Airways · Boston to Washington
- Flights
- 3,985
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 44%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Republic Airways.
Republic on BOS to DCA carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.2% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% 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 3,985 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, American Airlines, flew 2,262 at 76.5% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Republic on BOS to DCA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
75.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,809 completed flights
Avg delay
62 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.22%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
74.0%
Every carrier on BOS to DCA, 9,082 flights
These figures cover 3,985 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Republic against every carrier on BOS to DCA
Republic flew 3,985 of the 9,082 flights on BOS to DCA, about 44% of it. Its 75.6% on time is 2 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 74.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 82.7% to Delta at 33.3%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 76.5% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 68.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,634 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 198 | 82.7% | 59 min | 5.56% | B− |
| American Airlines | 2,262 | 76.5% | 93 min | 3.23% | B− |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 3,985 | 75.6% | 62 min | 4.22% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 2,634 | 68.8% | 72 min | 3.80% | C− |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 3 | 33.3% | 46 min | 0.00% | F+ |
JetBlue Airways cancels 3.8% 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.
Flight by flight
Republic flight numbers on BOS to DCA
Departure window
When Republic runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 28 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am658 flights90.8%
- 8am–11am425 flights88.0%
- 11am–2pm799 flights80.8%
- 2pm–5pm982 flights69.1%
- 5pm–8pm515 flights63.5%
- 8pm–5am606 flights63.3%
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 63.3% on time, against 90.8% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 982 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on BOS to DCA through the year
February is the weak month at 70.3% on time, against 82.6% in August. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 410 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 84.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 65.8%. 19 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Republic runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 43% of the 57,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 43%National Airspace System
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 21%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 24,000 minutes out of 57,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 57,107 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 90.8% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.22%, against 1.81% 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 399 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 77.9% on time across 3,983 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 3,985 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.
What to do with this
Booking Republic on BOS to DCA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.22% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 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. 3,809 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- BOS to DCA, every carrier
- Republic on DCA to BOS, the return leg
- Envoy Air on BOS to DCA82.7%
- American Airlines on BOS to DCA76.5%
- JetBlue Airways on BOS to DCA68.8%
- Republic Airways network-wide record
- Boston Logan International (BOS) delay statistics
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.