Carrier route record
YXDCA→IND
Republic Airways · Washington to Indianapolis
- Flights
- 1,802
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 89%
- 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 IND carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.8% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 1,802 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Republic on DCA to IND from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,729 completed flights
Avg delay
66 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.83%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
77.1%
Every carrier on DCA to IND, 2,027 flights
These figures cover 1,802 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.8% 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 DCA to IND
Republic flew 1,802 of the 2,027 flights on DCA to IND, most of the route. Its 77.2% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 77.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 80.0% to PSA at 76.1%. Three 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 | 5 | 80.0% | 27 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 28 | 77.8% | 26 min | 3.57% | B− |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 1,802 | 77.2% | 66 min | 3.83% | B− |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 192 | 76.1% | 107 min | 4.17% | B− |
Flight by flight
Republic flight numbers on DCA to IND
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 26 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–8am258 flights91.1%
- 8am–11am348 flights86.5%
- 11am–2pm253 flights77.0%
- 2pm–5pm253 flights76.1%
- 5pm–8pm535 flights68.2%
- 8pm–5am155 flights64.8%
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.8% on time, against 91.1% 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 535 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on DCA to IND through the year
December is the weak month at 59.7% on time, against 87.0% 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. October was the busiest month here, with 170 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 87.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.0%. 17 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 59% of the 26,000 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.
- 59%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%Carrier
- 15%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
59% 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 26,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 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 25,935 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 91.1% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.83%, 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
8.8% 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.
The 500 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg runs 75.2% on time across 1,800 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,802 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
What to do with this
Booking Republic on DCA to IND
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.83% 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. 1,729 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to IND, every carrier
- Republic on IND to DCA, the return leg
- PSA Airlines on DCA to IND76.1%
- Republic Airways network-wide record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Indianapolis International (IND) 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.