Route profile
BOS→IND
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Boston to Indianapolis, 818 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 72% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,128 flights. How this is calculated
BOS → IND arrives on time 84.7% of the time; the return trip, IND → BOS, arrives on time 81.7% of the time, a 3.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
BOS → IND spends 30.2 minutes on the ground on an 818-mile trip: 21.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BOS and 8.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at IND.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route holds up about the same all year, a steadier seasonal pattern than 92% of 3,357 comparable routes.
89.1% on time in its best month (November) against 78.2% in its worst (July).
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 3,357 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where BOS to IND differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BOS to IND is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 90.3% arrive on time, 12.8 points ahead of the 77.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.2 points.
BOS to IND holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 87.5% on time to their 78.7%, a 8.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
August is kinder to BOS to IND than to routes of similar length: 88.3% on time against 75.4%, 12.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 11.8 points.
Republic Airways does better on BOS to IND than on its routes of similar length: 85.0% on time here, 81.5% there, 3.5 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 2.9 points.
BOS to IND against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 90.3% | routes of similar length | 77.5% | +12.8 pts | 628 here, 134,505 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 87.5% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | +8.8 pts | 575 here, 293,084 there |
| Month: August | 88.3% | routes of similar length | 75.4% | +12.9 pts | 513 here, 186,629 there |
| Airline: Republic Airways | 85.0% | routes of similar length | 81.5% | +3.5 pts | 5,790 here, 88,920 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 818 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why BOS → IND flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
BOS → IND cancelled 100 of 6,128 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 61. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 50.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 123 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 100 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
50 cancellations, 50.0% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
35 cancellations, 35.0% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
15 cancellations, 15.0% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
100 coded cancellations were recorded on BOS → IND; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
31 min late
against a median of 13 min early
Percentiles over 6,128 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IND after arriving from BOS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 26% | High risk |
| 45 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 10% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.8% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.63% of the time and diverts 0.08% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,023 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 31 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,128 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BOS → IND flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.6% of the time, against 72.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 19.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 94.0% on time from 889 flights
- 8 AM: 89.0% on time from 976 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 87.6% on time from 170 flights
- 11 AM: 87.3% on time from 308 flights
- 12 PM: 88.8% on time from 665 flights
- 1 PM: 90.3% on time from 636 flights
- 2 PM: 86.0% on time from 174 flights
- 3 PM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 75.2% on time from 1,090 flights
- 6 PM: 74.9% on time from 528 flights
- 7 PM: 72.0% on time from 201 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why BOS → IND runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BOS → IND. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on BOS → IND, at 43.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 91.6% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 72.6%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 5,891 | 85.0% | 1.63% | -13 min | 6.3% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
YX5627 (1:59 PM) arrived on time 87.5% of the time, 16.1 points more often than YX4585 (5:00 PM) at 71.4%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.7%
- Feb: 86.6%
- Mar: 86.1%
- Apr: 82.1%
- May: 81.0%
- Jun: 83.8%
- Jul: 78.2%
- Aug: 88.3%
- Sep: 84.1%
- Oct: 88.0%
- Nov: 89.1%
- Dec: 87.5%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 10.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 74.5% from 169 flights
- August 2023: 87.4% from 176 flights
- September 2023: 85.3% from 161 flights
- October 2023: 92.8% from 167 flights
- November 2023: 91.6% from 154 flights
- December 2023: 92.4% from 134 flights
- January 2024: 77.0% from 146 flights
- February 2024: 93.4% from 153 flights
- March 2024: 91.3% from 163 flights
- April 2024: 84.8% from 164 flights
- May 2024: 84.6% from 163 flights
- June 2024: 87.4% from 176 flights
- July 2024: 80.4% from 179 flights
- August 2024: 87.6% from 180 flights
- September 2024: 87.1% from 171 flights
- October 2024: 91.3% from 173 flights
- November 2024: 92.6% from 163 flights
- December 2024: 91.3% from 151 flights
- January 2025: 92.9% from 161 flights
- February 2025: 81.1% from 147 flights
- March 2025: 90.9% from 165 flights
- April 2025: 84.8% from 164 flights
- May 2025: 77.5% from 173 flights
- June 2025: 78.7% from 175 flights
- July 2025: 79.1% from 178 flights
- August 2025: 89.9% from 172 flights
- September 2025: 79.6% from 160 flights
- October 2025: 79.8% from 173 flights
- November 2025: 83.2% from 162 flights
- December 2025: 79.9% from 160 flights
- January 2026: 83.4% from 168 flights
- February 2026: 84.9% from 158 flights
- March 2026: 76.5% from 174 flights
- April 2026: 76.8% from 168 flights
- May 2026: 81.3% from 167 flights
- June 2026: 85.3% from 177 flights
- July 2026: 78.6% from 183 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.6% against 86.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,128 BOS → IND flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed