Carrier route record
YXMSP→DCA
Republic Airways · Minneapolis to Washington
- Flights
- 199
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 8%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Republic Airways.
Republic on MSP to DCA lands a B−, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly 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 199 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Delta Air Lines, flew 1,701 at 75.9% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Republic on MSP 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
78.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 187 completed flights
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.03%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
74.6%
Every carrier on MSP to DCA, 2,632 flights
These figures cover 199 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 6 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 MSP to DCA
Republic flew 199 of the 2,632 flights on MSP to DCA, about 8% of it. Its 78.1% on time is 4 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 74.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 78.1% to American at 61.5%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The two carriers here are closely matched: 4 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways (this page)thin sample | 199 | 78.1% | 71 min | 5.03% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,701 | 75.9% | 61 min | 1.94% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 528 | 72.2% | 168 min | 6.06% | C− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 163 | 67.5% | 65 min | 4.29% | C− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 41 | 61.5% | 73 min | 4.88% | D− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.1% 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 29 points, against 4 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am131 flights84.6%
- 8am–11am3 flights—
- 11am–2pm17 flights—
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm48 flights55.6%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 45% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 55.6% on time, against 84.6% 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 131 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on MSP to DCA through the year
- Jul–Sep 20256 flights—
- Oct–Dec 202549 flights64.6%
- Jan–Mar 202673 flights80.3%
- Apr–Jun 202644 flights93.0%
- Jul–Sep 202627 flights—
Scale runs 55% to 100%. 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 78.1% on time across 199 flights.
Republic on MSP to DCA did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 93.0% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 64.6%, a swing of 28 points on roughly 66 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Thursday the weakest at 74.2%, a spread of 6 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Republic on MSP to DCA runs when it is late
Republic on MSP to DCA often beats the schedule: 65 of 187 completed flights, 35%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 41 late arrivals split 17 under half an hour, 13 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 11 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early65 flights34.8%
- Within 15 min81 flights43.3%
- 15–29 min late17 flights9.1%
- 30–59 min late13 flights7.0%
- 1–2 hours late7 flights3.7%
- 2+ hours late4 flights2.1%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 187 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 27 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 1 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 15 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 MSP to DCA
The latest arrival of the period was on 7 August 2026, 12 hours 26 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as national airspace system delay. Three of the five worst days fell in August 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 7 August 2026 | 12 hours 26 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 28 January 2026 | 5 hours 31 minutes | Carrier |
| 23 October 2025 | 3 hours 29 minutes | Carrier |
| 13 August 2026 | 2 hours 3 minutes | Carrier |
| 11 August 2026 | 1 hour 43 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why Republic runs late on this route
National Airspace System accounts for 48% of the 2,901 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%National Airspace System
- 32%Carrier
- 21%Late-arriving aircraft
- 0%Extreme weather
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 1,378 minutes out of 2,901, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 2,901 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 5.03%, 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
5.9% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 931 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 72.2% on time across 198 flights, 6 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 6 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 199 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 MSP to DCA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.03% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over 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. 187 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- MSP to DCA, every carrier
- Republic on DCA to MSP, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on MSP to DCA75.9%
- PSA Airlines on MSP to DCA72.2%
- Envoy Air on MSP to DCA67.5%
- Republic Airways network-wide record
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.