Carrier route record
YXDCA→SDF
Republic Airways · Washington to Louisville
- Flights
- 465
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 45%
- 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 SDF sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 465 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so Republic on DCA to SDF runs 5 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 48 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
72.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 440 completed flights
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.38%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
74.9%
Every carrier on DCA to SDF, 1,027 flights
These figures cover 465 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.9% 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 SDF
Republic flew 465 of the 1,027 flights on DCA to SDF, about 45% of it. Its 72.5% on time is 2 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 74.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 83.3% to Republic at 72.5%. 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 | 13 | 83.3% | 42 min | 7.69% | B− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 5 | 80.0% | 66 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PSA Airlines | 544 | 76.7% | 60 min | 5.33% | B− |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 465 | 72.5% | 76 min | 5.38% | C− |
Flight by flight
Republic flight numbers on DCA to SDF
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 13 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am48 flights80.4%
- 11am–2pm48 flights76.6%
- 2pm–5pm14 flights—
- 5pm–8pm260 flights67.2%
- 8pm–5am95 flights79.3%
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 80.4% of the time, against 67.2% for the evening window. That is 13 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 260 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on DCA to SDF through the year
August is the worst month at 51.6% on time, 37 points below May, the best at 88.6%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. March was the busiest month here, with 58 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 83.9% on time and Friday the weakest at 66.1%, a spread of 18 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Republic on DCA to SDF runs when it is late
Republic on DCA to SDF often beats the schedule: 148 of 440 completed flights, 34%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 121 late arrivals split 36 under half an hour, 37 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 48 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early148 flights33.6%
- Within 15 min171 flights38.9%
- 15–29 min late36 flights8.2%
- 30–59 min late37 flights8.4%
- 1–2 hours late22 flights5.0%
- 2+ hours late26 flights5.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 440 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 114 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 8 made it up before arrival. 15 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Republic on DCA to SDF
The latest arrival of the period was on 13 May 2026, 10 hours 14 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 13 May 2026 | 10 hours 14 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 17 April 2026 | 4 hours 42 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 30 January 2026 | 4 hours 40 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 30 November 2025 | 4 hours 19 minutes | Carrier |
| 4 September 2025 | 3 hours 56 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Republic runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 62% of the 9,208 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 62%Late-arriving aircraft
- 19%Carrier
- 10%Extreme weather
- 9%National Airspace System
62% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 9,208 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 9,208 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 80.4% on time here.
Cancellations run at 5.38%, 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
10.9% 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 474 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 83.4% on time across 463 flights, 11 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 11 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 465 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 SDF
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.38% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over 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. 440 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
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.