Route reliability record
IAD→IND
Washington to Indianapolis
- Flights
- 984
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 476 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 7 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 984 IAD to IND flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
Best time to fly IAD to IND: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.7% of the time and Wednesday flights 87.3%, against 83.8% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 7 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 65 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
83.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 973 completed flights
Avg delay
88 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.12%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
84.3% on time across 935 flights
These figures cover 984 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 10 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on IAD to IND
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 935 | 84.3% | 93 min | 1.18% | B |
| United Airlinesthin sample | 49 | 73.5% | 32 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on IAD to IND
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Washington to Indianapolis
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 2 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. IAD → INDWashington to Indianapolis | Republic Airways | 83.3% | 84.3% | 1.18% | 8am–11am, Wed (route) | YX 3561 08:24 |
| 2. BWI → INDBaltimore to Indianapolis | Southwest Airlines | 75.3% | 76.3% | 1.32% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 3. DCA → INDWashington to Indianapolis | Republic Airways | 74.7% | 77.3% | 3.34% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 4701 10:30 |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 18 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am338 flights91.7%
- 11am–2pm348 flights84.3%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm219 flights73.8%
- 8pm–5am79 flights74.4%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 91.7% of the time, against 73.8% for the evening window. That is 18 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 348 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter IAD to IND by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On IAD to IND, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 91.7% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 73.8%, a wide gap of 17.9 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am91.7%
- 11am–2pm84.3%
- 2–5pm—
- 5–8pm73.8%
- 8pm–5am74.4%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 20 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
Delays peak in March, when the on-time rate falls to 72.8%. January is the strongest month at 93.1%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 20 points. March was the busiest month here, with 92 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 87.3% on time and Friday the weakest at 79.6%, a spread of 8 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 46% of the 14,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Carrier
- 31%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 46%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 6,423 of the 14,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 13,821 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 91.7% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.12% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.3% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 476 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 85.2% on time across 987 flights, within about 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. 984 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in IND after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 984 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 83.8% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 973 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
IAD to IND questions
How often is IAD to IND delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 16.2% of the 984 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is IAD to IND compared with the rest of the country?
83.8% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 7 points in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on IAD to IND?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 91.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 73.8%, 18 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are March delays on IAD to IND?
March is the weakest month at 72.8% on time, compared with 93.1% in January. Across the year that is 20 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- IND to IAD — the return legseparate record
- Washington Dulles International (IAD) delay statistics
- Indianapolis International (IND) delay statistics
- IAD to ATL, a related route78.0%
- ORD to IND, a related route74.1%
- IAD to DEN, a related route83.1%
- Republic Airways on-time record84.3%
- United Airlines on-time record73.5%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. IAD to IND and IND to IAD are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.