Route reliability record
IND→BOS
Indianapolis to Boston
- Flights
- 2,025
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 818 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 2,025 IND to BOS flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
Best time to fly IND to BOS: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.8% of the time and Saturday flights 85.4%, against 78.8% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,969 completed flights
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.77%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
78.9% on time across 1,975 flights
These figures cover 2,025 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on IND to BOS
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 1 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Allegiant Airthin sample | 18 | 88.9% | 91 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Republic Airways | 1,975 | 78.9% | 71 min | 2.78% | B |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 31 | 70.0% | 63 min | 3.23% | C− |
Flight by flight
Flights on IND to BOS
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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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 27 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am506 flights91.8%
- 8am–11am251 flights88.8%
- 11am–2pm471 flights80.7%
- 2pm–5pm201 flights67.3%
- 5pm–8pm537 flights64.8%
- 8pm–5am59 flights72.7%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 64.8% on time, against 91.8% 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 537 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter IND to BOS 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 IND to BOS, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.8% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 64.8%, a wide gap of 27.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.8%
- 8–11am88.8%
- 11am–2pm80.7%
- 2–5pm67.3%
- 5–8pm64.8%
- 8pm–5am72.7%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 27 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.
April is the best month on the calendar at 87.5% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. July was the busiest month here, with 183 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 85.4% on time and Tuesday the weakest at 75.5%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 52% of the 30,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 52%National Airspace System
- 27%Late-arriving aircraft
- 16%Carrier
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
52% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 15,000 minutes out of 30,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 29,698 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.77%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 40 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 actually costs
9.4% 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.
The 818 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 80.3% on time across 2,025 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 2,025 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in BOS after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 87.5% on time and September 60.9%, a swing of 27 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of September before you think about anything else. 1,969 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
IND to BOS questions
How often is IND to BOS delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.2% of the 2,025 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is IND to BOS compared with the rest of the country?
78.8% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 points in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on IND to BOS?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 64.8%, 27 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 September delays on IND to BOS?
September is the weakest month at 60.9% on time, compared with 87.5% in April. Across the year that is 27 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
- BOS to IND — the return legseparate record
- Indianapolis International (IND) delay statistics
- Boston Logan International (BOS) delay statistics
- IND to ORD, a related route76.7%
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- IND to ATL, a related route87.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record100.0%
- Allegiant Air on-time record88.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record78.9%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. IND to BOS and BOS to IND 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.