Carrier route record
YXCHS→DCA
Republic Airways · Charleston to Washington
- Flights
- 375
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 21%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Republic Airways.
Republic on CHS to DCA lands a B−, level with the national rate of 77.6%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 375 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, American Airlines, flew 502 at 76.9% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Republic on CHS 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
77.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 359 completed flights
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.27%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
72.7%
Every carrier on CHS to DCA, 1,755 flights
These figures cover 375 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.4% 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 CHS to DCA
Republic flew 375 of the 1,755 flights on CHS to DCA, about 21% of it. Its 77.4% on time is 5 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 72.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 100.0% to PSA at 67.9%. One 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 76.9% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 67.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 874 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 4 | 100.0% | — | 25.00% | A− |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 375 | 77.4% | 71 min | 4.27% | B− |
| American Airlines | 502 | 76.9% | 94 min | 2.19% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 874 | 67.9% | 125 min | 6.86% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.9% 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.
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 15 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am71 flights87.0%
- 8am–11am16 flights—
- 11am–2pm59 flights85.5%
- 2pm–5pm226 flights71.8%
- 5pm–8pm3 flights—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 65% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 87.0% of the time, against 71.8% for the afternoon window. That is 15 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 226 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on CHS to DCA through the year
- Jul–Sep 202592 flights86.7%
- Oct–Dec 202539 flights76.9%
- Jan–Mar 2026163 flights70.5%
- Apr–Jun 202681 flights80.2%
Scale runs 60% to 90%. 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 77.4% on time across 375 flights.
Republic on CHS to DCA did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 86.7% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 70.5%, a swing of 16 points on roughly 94 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, Saturday is the strongest day at 87.5% on time and Thursday the weakest at 66.1%. 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. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 58% of the 5,764 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.
- 58%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%National Airspace System
- 14%Carrier
- 1%Extreme weather
58% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 5,764 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 48 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 5,764 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 87.0% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.27%, 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
8.4% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 444 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 80.7% on time across 375 flights, 3 points above 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 3 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 375 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 CHS to DCA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.27% 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. 359 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- CHS to DCA, every carrier
- Republic on DCA to CHS, the return leg
- American Airlines on CHS to DCA76.9%
- PSA Airlines on CHS to DCA67.9%
- Republic Airways network-wide record
- 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.