Carrier route record
YXLGA→DCA
Republic Airways · New York to Washington
- Flights
- 4,699
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 97%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Republic Airways.
Republic on LGA to DCA carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.8% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about two flights in three arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 4,699 flights, with a median arrival right on schedule.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so Republic on LGA to DCA runs 12 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 116 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
65.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,417 completed flights
Avg delay
61 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.83%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
65.5%
Every carrier on LGA to DCA, 4,840 flights
These figures cover 4,699 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Republic against every carrier on LGA to DCA
Republic flew 4,699 of the 4,840 flights on LGA to DCA, most of the route. Its 65.7% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 65.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 65.7% to Delta at 58.4%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways (this page) | 4,699 | 65.7% | 61 min | 5.83% | C− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 24 | 60.9% | 110 min | 4.17% | D− |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 117 | 58.4% | 84 min | 3.42% | D− |
Flight by flight
Republic flight numbers on LGA to DCA
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 33 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am765 flights82.4%
- 8am–11am887 flights76.0%
- 11am–2pm768 flights68.6%
- 2pm–5pm808 flights56.3%
- 5pm–8pm969 flights55.7%
- 8pm–5am502 flights49.2%
Scale runs 40% to 90%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 49.2% on time, against 82.4% 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 969 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on LGA to DCA through the year
September is the best month on the calendar at 81.4% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 436 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 83.5% on time and Friday the weakest at 62.5%, a spread of 21 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Republic on LGA to DCA runs when it is late
Republic on LGA to DCA often beats the schedule: 1,172 of 4,417 completed flights, 27%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 1,513 late arrivals split 512 under half an hour, 498 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 503 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early1,172 flights26.5%
- Within 15 min1,732 flights39.2%
- 15–29 min late512 flights11.6%
- 30–59 min late498 flights11.3%
- 1–2 hours late335 flights7.6%
- 2+ hours late168 flights3.8%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 4,417 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 962 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 102 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 653 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 LGA to DCA
The latest arrival of the period was on 10 August 2026, 15 hours 19 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). Three of the five worst days fell in December 2025.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 10 August 2026 | 15 hours 19 minutes | Carrier |
| 14 December 2025 | 8 hours 50 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 4 December 2025 | 8 hours 15 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 14 December 2025 | 6 hours 44 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 30 October 2025 | 6 hours 23 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Republic runs late on this route
National Airspace System accounts for 43% of the 92,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%National Airspace System
- 35%Late-arriving aircraft
- 18%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
35% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 92,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 91,830 reported delay minutes.
43% 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 39,000 minutes out of 92,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 5.83%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
11.4% 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.
At 214 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 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 65.1% on time across 4,703 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.
The sample behind these figures is 4,699 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 LGA to DCA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.83% 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. 4,417 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- LGA to DCA, every carrier
- Republic on DCA to LGA, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on LGA to DCA58.4%
- Republic Airways network-wide record
- LaGuardia (LGA) 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.