Carrier route record
YXCMH→DCA
Republic Airways · Columbus to Washington
- Flights
- 990
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 48%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Republic Airways.
Republic on CMH to DCA carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.8% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about two flights in three 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 990 flights, with a median arrival right on schedule.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so Republic on CMH to DCA runs 10 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 100 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
67.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 952 completed flights
Avg delay
61 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.84%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
69.2%
Every carrier on CMH to DCA, 2,051 flights
These figures cover 990 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.5% 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 CMH to DCA
Republic flew 990 of the 2,051 flights on CMH to DCA, about 48% of it. Its 67.3% on time is 2 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 69.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 88.7% to Southwest at 57.9%. 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.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 258 | 88.7% | 50 min | 0.78% | A+ |
| PSA Airlines | 453 | 70.6% | 110 min | 7.51% | C− |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 990 | 67.3% | 61 min | 3.84% | C− |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 350 | 57.9% | 67 min | 1.14% | D |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
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 33 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am23 flights—
- 8am–11am169 flights87.5%
- 11am–2pm344 flights65.5%
- 2pm–5pm149 flights54.2%
- 5pm–8pm305 flights63.6%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 45% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 87.5% of the time, against 54.2% for the afternoon window. That is 33 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 344 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on CMH to DCA through the year
December is the weak month at 38.3% on time, against 81.7% in October. 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. June was the busiest month here, with 118 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 79.8% on time and Wednesday the weakest at 60.0%, a spread of 20 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Republic on CMH to DCA runs when it is late
Republic on CMH to DCA often beats the schedule: 263 of 952 completed flights, 28%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 311 late arrivals split 97 under half an hour, 114 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 100 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early263 flights27.6%
- Within 15 min378 flights39.7%
- 15–29 min late97 flights10.2%
- 30–59 min late114 flights12.0%
- 1–2 hours late68 flights7.1%
- 2+ hours late32 flights3.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 952 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 205 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 20 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 126 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 CMH to DCA
The latest arrival of the period was on 6 July 2026, 10 hours 21 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 a late-arriving aircraft.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 6 July 2026 | 10 hours 21 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 11 June 2026 | 5 hours 54 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 15 January 2026 | 4 hours 53 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 8 June 2026 | 4 hours 31 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 19 January 2026 | 4 hours 23 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Republic runs late on this route
National Airspace System accounts for 47% of the 19,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%National Airspace System
- 40%Late-arriving aircraft
- 8%Carrier
- 6%Extreme weather
40% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 19,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 18,896 reported delay minutes.
47% 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 8,885 minutes out of 19,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 3.84%, 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
10.5% 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 323 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 8am–11am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 80.1% on time across 989 flights, 13 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 13 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 990 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 CMH to DCA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.84% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 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. 952 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- CMH to DCA, every carrier
- Republic on DCA to CMH, the return leg
- Envoy Air on CMH to DCA88.7%
- PSA Airlines on CMH to DCA70.6%
- Southwest Airlines on CMH to DCA57.9%
- Republic Airways network-wide record
- John Glenn Columbus International (CMH) 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.