Carrier route record
YXDCA→SYR
Republic Airways · Washington to Syracuse
- Flights
- 178
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 17%
- 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 SYR sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 8 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 178 flights, with a median arrival right on schedule.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so Republic on DCA to SYR runs 8 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 81 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
69.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 167 completed flights
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
6.18%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
68.0%
Every carrier on DCA to SYR, 1,029 flights
These figures cover 178 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.2% 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 SYR
Republic flew 178 of the 1,029 flights on DCA to SYR, about 17% of it. Its 69.5% on time is 2 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 68.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 72.1% to Envoy at 55.6%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlinesthin sample | 221 | 72.1% | 76 min | 2.71% | C |
| Republic Airways (this page)thin sample | 178 | 69.5% | 59 min | 6.18% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 541 | 67.8% | 69 min | 5.55% | C− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 89 | 55.6% | 96 min | 8.99% | 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 15 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–8am—
- 8am–11am35 flights82.9%
- 11am–2pm1 flights—
- 2pm–5pm18 flights—
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am124 flights67.5%
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 82.9% of the time, against 67.5% for the overnight window. That is 15 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 124 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on DCA to SYR through the year
- Jul–Sep 202528 flights—
- Oct–Dec 202570 flights72.7%
- Jan–Mar 202663 flights58.6%
- Apr–Jun 202617 flights—
Scale runs 50% 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 69.5% on time across 178 flights.
Split by quarter, Republic on DCA to SYR logged 28 flights in Jul–Sep 2025, 70 flights in Oct–Dec 2025, 63 flights in Jan–Mar 2026 and 17 flights in Apr–Jun 2026. Fewer than three of those quarters carried the 30 completed flights this site needs before printing a rate, so the 69.5% annual figure is the one to use.
Delay causes
Why Republic runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 75% of the 2,995 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.
- 75%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%National Airspace System
- 8%Carrier
- 1%Extreme weather
75% 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 2,995 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 68 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 2,995 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 82.9% on time here.
Cancellations run at 6.18%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in fifteen 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
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 10.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 298 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 runs 68.8% on time across 178 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. 178 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 SYR
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 6.18% 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. 167 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to SYR, every carrier
- Republic on SYR to DCA, the return leg
- American Airlines on DCA to SYR72.1%
- PSA Airlines on DCA to SYR67.8%
- 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.