Carrier route record
YXDCA→BDL
Republic Airways · Washington to Hartford
- Flights
- 415
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 24%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Republic Airways.
Republic on DCA to BDL sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 415 flights, with a median arrival 2 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so Republic on DCA to BDL runs 5 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 45 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
73.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 401 completed flights
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.37%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
70.2%
Every carrier on DCA to BDL, 1,735 flights
These figures cover 415 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 2 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 DCA to BDL
Republic flew 415 of the 1,735 flights on DCA to BDL, about 24% of it. Its 73.1% on time is 3 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 70.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 73.3% to American at 61.3%. 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 | 39 | 73.3% | 53 min | 23.08% | C− |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 415 | 73.1% | 59 min | 3.37% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 957 | 71.8% | 74 min | 5.96% | C− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 324 | 61.3% | 76 min | 5.56% | D− |
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 19 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–8am7 flights—
- 8am–11am69 flights81.2%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm134 flights76.7%
- 5pm–8pm96 flights62.2%
- 8pm–5am109 flights70.8%
Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 62.2% on time, against 81.2% for the 8am–11am 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 134 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on DCA to BDL through the year
- Jul–Sep 2025104 flights74.2%
- Oct–Dec 2025106 flights75.5%
- Jan–Mar 202653 flights49.0%
- Apr–Jun 2026152 flights78.5%
Scale runs 40% to 85%. 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 73.1% on time across 415 flights.
Republic on DCA to BDL did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 78.5% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 49.0%, a swing of 30 points on roughly 104 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, Sunday is the strongest day at 78.6% on time and Monday the weakest at 62.9%. 16 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 52% of the 6,414 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.
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%National Airspace System
- 21%Carrier
- 4%Extreme weather
52% 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 6,414 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 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 6,414 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 81.2% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.37%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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
6.5% 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 313 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 70.0% on time across 415 flights, 3 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 3 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 415 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 DCA to BDL
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.37% 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. 401 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to BDL, every carrier
- Republic on BDL to DCA, the return leg
- PSA Airlines on DCA to BDL71.8%
- American Airlines on DCA to BDL61.3%
- 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.