Carrier route record
YXBOS→DCA
Republic Airways · Boston to Washington
- Flights
- 3,999
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 44%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 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: 3.9% 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 3,999 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, American Airlines, flew 2,231 at 75.1% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, 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
75.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,832 completed flights
Avg delay
62 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.90%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
72.6%
Every carrier on BOS to DCA, 9,105 flights
These figures cover 3,999 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Republic against every carrier on BOS to DCA
Republic flew 3,999 of the 9,105 flights on BOS to DCA, about 44% of it. Its 75.1% on time is 3 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 72.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 78.5% to Delta at 42.9%. 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 75.1% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 66.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,626 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 241 | 78.5% | 68 min | 6.64% | B− |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 3,999 | 75.1% | 62 min | 3.90% | B− |
| American Airlines | 2,231 | 75.1% | 88 min | 3.27% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 2,626 | 66.3% | 74 min | 4.87% | C− |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 8 | 42.9% | 45 min | 12.50% | F− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 4.9% 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
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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 29 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am690 flights90.3%
- 8am–11am512 flights86.4%
- 11am–2pm768 flights77.8%
- 2pm–5pm986 flights69.6%
- 5pm–8pm425 flights61.2%
- 8pm–5am618 flights62.5%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.2% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 986 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 80.7% 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. August was the busiest month here, with 393 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 83.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 66.6%, a spread of 17 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Republic on BOS to DCA runs when it is late
Republic on BOS to DCA often beats the schedule: 1,187 of 3,832 completed flights, 31%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 956 late arrivals split 325 under half an hour, 275 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 356 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early1,187 flights31.0%
- Within 15 min1,689 flights44.1%
- 15–29 min late325 flights8.5%
- 30–59 min late275 flights7.2%
- 1–2 hours late253 flights6.6%
- 2+ hours late103 flights2.7%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 3,832 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
104 of 796 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 13% of them. In the other direction, 264 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at DCA.
The worst days
Worst days for Republic on BOS to DCA
The latest arrival of the period was on 13 December 2025, 12 hours 50 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as extreme weather. On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as national airspace system delay.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 13 December 2025 | 12 hours 50 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 14 July 2026 | 9 hours 30 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 22 June 2026 | 6 hours 51 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 20 May 2026 | 6 hours 35 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 9 July 2026 | 6 hours | National Airspace System |
Delay causes
Why Republic runs late on this route
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 59,000 reported delay minutes.
- 40%National Airspace System
- 35%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
35% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 59,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 to one. The split is drawn from 59,122 reported delay minutes.
40% 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 59,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 3.90%, 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
9.3% 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.
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 76.9% on time across 3,998 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 3,999 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 3.90% 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. 3,832 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 DCA78.5%
- American Airlines on BOS to DCA75.1%
- JetBlue Airways on BOS to DCA66.3%
- 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.