Carrier route record
YXIND→DCA
Republic Airways · Indianapolis to Washington
- Flights
- 1,800
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 89%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Republic Airways.
Republic on IND to DCA carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.4% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 1,800 flights, with a median arrival 3 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Republic on IND 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
75.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,735 completed flights
Avg delay
57 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.39%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
74.5%
Every carrier on IND to DCA, 2,025 flights
These figures cover 1,800 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 3 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.
Carrier by carrier
Republic against every carrier on IND to DCA
Republic flew 1,800 of the 2,025 flights on IND to DCA, most of the route. Its 75.2% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 74.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 100.0% to PSA at 67.1%. Three 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 | 5 | 100.0% | — | 20.00% | A− |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 1,800 | 75.2% | 57 min | 3.39% | B− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 28 | 74.1% | 46 min | 3.57% | C− |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 192 | 67.1% | 118 min | 12.50% | C− |
Flight by flight
Republic flight numbers on IND to DCA
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 29 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–8am512 flights85.0%
- 8am–11am493 flights83.6%
- 11am–2pm23 flights—
- 2pm–5pm196 flights58.9%
- 5pm–8pm281 flights56.3%
- 8pm–5am295 flights71.0%
Scale runs 50% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 56.3% on time, against 85.0% 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 512 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on IND to DCA through the year
December is the weak month at 62.1% on time, against 84.2% in June. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. October was the busiest month here, with 170 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 88.9% on time and Friday the weakest at 69.9%. 19 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Republic runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 48% of the 25,000 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.
- 48%National Airspace System
- 32%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
48% 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 12,000 minutes out of 25,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 24,596 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 85.0% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.39%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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
7.8% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says 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 500 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg runs 77.2% on time across 1,802 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 1,800 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.
What to do with this
Booking Republic on IND to DCA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.39% 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. 1,735 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- IND to DCA, every carrier
- Republic on DCA to IND, the return leg
- PSA Airlines on IND to DCA67.1%
- Republic Airways network-wide record
- Indianapolis International (IND) 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.