Carrier route record

YXBUF→DCA

Republic Airways · Buffalo to Washington

Flights: 264
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 23%
Carriers: 4

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Republic Airways.

Republic on BUF to DCA lands a B, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 264 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Republic on BUF to DCA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

76.1%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 259 completed flights

Avg delay

66 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.89%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

65.1%

Every carrier on BUF to DCA, 1,162 flights

These figures cover 264 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 6 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.

Carrier by carrier

Republic against every carrier on BUF to DCA

Republic flew 264 of the 1,162 flights on BUF to DCA, about 23% of it. Its 76.1% on time is 11 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 65.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 100.0% to Envoy at 53.4%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.

Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.

On-time performance by carrier on BUF to DCA
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
American Airlinesthin sample	6	100.0%	—	0.00%	A+
Republic Airways (this page)thin sample	264	76.1%	66 min	1.89%	B
PSA Airlines	728	63.1%	122 min	6.18%	D−
Envoy Airthin sample	164	53.4%	72 min	9.15%	F−

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 58 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am201 flights86.2%
8am–11am—
11am–2pm31 flights61.3%
2pm–5pm—
5pm–8pm32 flights28.1%
8pm–5am—

Scale runs 20% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 28.1% on time, against 86.2% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 201 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

Republic on BUF to DCA through the year

Jul–Sep 2025102 flights81.0%
Oct–Dec 2025119 flights70.9%
Jan–Mar 202636 flights88.6%
Apr–Jun 20267 flights—

Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 76.1% on time across 264 flights.

Republic on BUF to DCA did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jan–Mar 2026 at 88.6% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 70.9%, a swing of 18 points on roughly 88 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.

Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 85.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 64.7%. 21 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. Carrier accounts for 58% of the 4,060 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.

Carrier
58%
Late-arriving aircraft
25%
National Airspace System
16%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%

The largest share of delay minutes, 58%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 2,367 of the 4,060 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 4,060 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.89% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

6.9% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

At 296 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 64.1% on time across 263 flights, 12 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 12 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 264 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.

What to do with this

Booking Republic on BUF to DCA

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 264 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 76.1% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 259 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

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.

Key figures