Carrier route record
YXDCA→IAH
Republic Airways · Washington to Houston
- Flights
- 511
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 15%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Republic Airways.
Republic on DCA to IAH sits in the middle of the pack with a B−. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 511 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, United Airlines, flew 2,384 at 83.5% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Republic on DCA to IAH from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
75.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 485 completed flights
Avg delay
56 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.09%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
80.3%
Every carrier on DCA to IAH, 3,333 flights
These figures cover 511 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.0% 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 DCA to IAH
Republic flew 511 of the 3,333 flights on DCA to IAH, about 15% of it. Its 75.7% on time is 5 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 80.3%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 83.5% to PSA at 66.6%.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 83.5% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 66.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 438 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 2,384 | 83.5% | 85 min | 0.80% | B+ |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 511 | 75.7% | 56 min | 5.09% | B− |
| PSA Airlines | 438 | 66.6% | 83 min | 7.31% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 7.3% 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.
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 21 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am120 flights91.2%
- 8am–11am8 flights—
- 11am–2pm2 flights—
- 2pm–5pm179 flights69.8%
- 5pm–8pm12 flights—
- 8pm–5am190 flights72.2%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.2% of the time, against 69.8% for the afternoon window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 190 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on DCA to IAH through the year
- Jul–Sep 202570 flights74.3%
- Oct–Dec 2025235 flights75.7%
- Jan–Mar 2026196 flights76.0%
- Apr–Jun 202610 flights—
Scale runs 65% to 80%. 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 75.7% on time across 511 flights.
Quarter by quarter Republic on DCA to IAH held fairly steady: 74.3% in Jul–Sep 2025, 75.7% in Oct–Dec 2025 and 76.0% in Jan–Mar 2026. A spread of 2 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 81.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.0%, a spread of 12 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Republic on DCA to IAH runs when it is late
Republic on DCA to IAH often beats the schedule: 191 of 485 completed flights, 39%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 118 late arrivals split 45 under half an hour, 34 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 39 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early191 flights39.4%
- Within 15 min176 flights36.3%
- 15–29 min late45 flights9.3%
- 30–59 min late34 flights7.0%
- 1–2 hours late27 flights5.6%
- 2+ hours late12 flights2.5%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 485 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
21 of 96 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 22% of them. In the other direction, 43 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 IAH.
The worst days
Worst days for Republic on DCA to IAH
The latest arrival of the period was on 29 January 2026, 4 hours 28 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). On four of the five worst days the largest share was filed as a late-arriving aircraft.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 29 January 2026 | 4 hours 28 minutes | Carrier |
| 25 September 2025 | 4 hours 6 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 28 December 2025 | 3 hours 36 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 4 November 2025 | 3 hours 11 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 26 February 2026 | 2 hours 52 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Republic runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 49% of the 6,661 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%National Airspace System
- 19%Carrier
- 6%Extreme weather
49% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 6,661 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. The split is drawn from 6,661 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 91.2% on time here.
Cancellations run at 5.09%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in twenty 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
8.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so 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.
The 1,208 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg runs 75.9% on time across 513 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 511 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 IAH
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.09% 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. 485 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to IAH, every carrier
- Republic on IAH to DCA, the return leg
- United Airlines on DCA to IAH83.5%
- PSA Airlines on DCA to IAH66.6%
- Republic Airways network-wide record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) 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.