Carrier route record
YXIAH→DCA
Republic Airways · Houston to Washington
- Flights
- 513
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 15%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Republic Airways.
Republic on IAH to DCA sits in the middle of the pack with a B−. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 513 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, United Airlines, flew 2,385 at 76.7% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Republic on IAH to DCA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
75.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 486 completed flights
Avg delay
64 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.87%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
75.3%
Every carrier on IAH to DCA, 3,337 flights
These figures cover 513 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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
Republic against every carrier on IAH to DCA
Republic flew 513 of the 3,337 flights on IAH to DCA, about 15% of it. Its 75.9% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 75.3%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 76.7% to PSA at 66.3%.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 76.7% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 66.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 439 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 2,385 | 76.7% | 69 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 513 | 75.9% | 64 min | 4.87% | B− |
| PSA Airlines | 439 | 66.3% | 109 min | 8.20% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 8.2% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
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 10 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am201 flights87.6%
- 8am–11am117 flights78.9%
- 11am–2pm17 flights—
- 2pm–5pm1 flights—
- 5pm–8pm177 flights59.9%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 59.9% on time, against 87.6% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 201 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on IAH to DCA through the year
- Jul–Sep 202570 flights80.0%
- Oct–Dec 2025235 flights74.7%
- Jan–Mar 2026196 flights76.5%
- Apr–Jun 202612 flights—
Scale runs 65% to 85%. 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 75.9% on time across 513 flights.
Quarter by quarter Republic on IAH to DCA held fairly steady: 80.0% in Jul–Sep 2025, 74.7% in Oct–Dec 2025 and 76.5% in Jan–Mar 2026. A spread of 5 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 90.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 62.9%, a spread of 27 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Republic on IAH to DCA runs when it is late
Republic on IAH to DCA often beats the schedule: 167 of 486 completed flights, 34%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 117 late arrivals split 47 under half an hour, 35 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 35 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early167 flights34.4%
- Within 15 min202 flights41.6%
- 15–29 min late47 flights9.7%
- 30–59 min late35 flights7.2%
- 1–2 hours late20 flights4.1%
- 2+ hours late15 flights3.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 486 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
13 of 98 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 13% of them. In the other direction, 32 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at DCA.
The worst days
Worst days for Republic on IAH to DCA
The latest arrival of the period was on 16 December 2025, 13 hours 10 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. On four of the five worst days the largest share was filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage).
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 16 December 2025 | 13 hours 10 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 27 February 2026 | 6 hours 1 minute | Carrier |
| 30 January 2026 | 5 hours 22 minutes | Carrier |
| 29 December 2025 | 4 hours 5 minutes | Carrier |
| 30 January 2026 | 3 hours 50 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why Republic runs late on this route
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 7,490 reported delay minutes.
- 40%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 28%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
40% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 7,490 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 40 to one. The split is drawn from 7,490 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 87.6% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.87%, 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
7.2% 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 1,208 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 runs 75.7% on time across 511 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. 513 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 IAH to DCA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.87% 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. 486 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- IAH to DCA, every carrier
- Republic on DCA to IAH, the return leg
- United Airlines on IAH to DCA76.7%
- PSA Airlines on IAH to DCA66.3%
- Republic Airways network-wide record
- George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) delay statistics
- 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.