Carrier route record
YXDCA→IND
Republic Airways · Washington to Indianapolis
- Flights
- 1,854
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 92%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 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: 3.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% 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 1,854 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, 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
77.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,787 completed flights
Avg delay
63 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.34%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
77.1%
Every carrier on DCA to IND, 2,022 flights
These figures cover 1,854 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Republic against every carrier on DCA to IND
Republic flew 1,854 of the 2,022 flights on DCA to IND, most of the route. Its 77.3% 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 74.4%. 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) | 1,854 | 77.3% | 63 min | 3.34% | B− |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 135 | 74.4% | 78 min | 10.37% | C− |
Flight by flight
Republic flight numbers on DCA to IND
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 28 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am257 flights92.3%
- 8am–11am347 flights85.3%
- 11am–2pm276 flights78.2%
- 2pm–5pm283 flights75.4%
- 5pm–8pm535 flights68.8%
- 8pm–5am156 flights64.4%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.4% on time, against 92.3% 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 87.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.3%, a spread of 16 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Republic on DCA to IND runs when it is late
Republic on DCA to IND often beats the schedule: 604 of 1,787 completed flights, 34%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 406 late arrivals split 132 under half an hour, 122 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 152 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early604 flights33.8%
- Within 15 min777 flights43.5%
- 15–29 min late132 flights7.4%
- 30–59 min late122 flights6.8%
- 1–2 hours late103 flights5.8%
- 2+ hours late49 flights2.7%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 1,787 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
97 of 428 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 23% of them. 75 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Republic on DCA to IND
The latest arrival of the period was on 19 May 2026, 9 hours 26 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 19 May 2026 | 9 hours 26 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 16 March 2026 | 4 hours 46 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 1 April 2026 | 4 hours 16 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 27 March 2026 | 4 hours 5 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 27 November 2025 | 4 hours 2 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Republic runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 25,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 19%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 9%Extreme weather
56% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 25,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 25,365 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 92.3% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.34%, against 1.89% 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
8.5% 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 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.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 74.3% on time across 1,853 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.
The sample behind these figures is 1,854 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 3.34% 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. 1,787 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 IND74.4%
- 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.