Route profile
BOS→PIT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Boston to Pittsburgh, 496 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 34% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,574 flights. How this is calculated
BOS → PIT arrives on time 78.8% of the time; the return trip, PIT → BOS, arrives on time 80.2% of the time.
BOS → PIT spends 27.9 minutes on the ground on a 496-mile trip: 20.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BOS and 7.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at PIT.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where BOS to PIT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BOS to PIT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 83.2% arrive on time, 6.2 points ahead of the 77.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.6 points.
BOS to PIT struggles most at 5 PM: 65.8% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5 points behind the 70.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
Thursday is the day BOS to PIT slips furthest against routes of similar length, 75.1% on time where they average 77.9%, 2.8 points lower.
In September, BOS to PIT runs 7.7 points below routes of similar length, 76.2% on time to 83.9%. Against all other routes the gap is 6.2 points.
May is kinder to BOS to PIT than to routes of similar length: 80.9% on time against 76.1%, 4.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 5.7 points.
BOS to PIT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 83.2% | routes of similar length | 77.0% | +6.2 pts | 560 here, 77,812 there |
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 65.8% | routes of similar length | 70.8% | −5.0 pts | 398 here, 102,755 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 75.1% | routes of similar length | 77.9% | −2.8 pts | 989 here, 207,719 there |
| Month: September | 76.2% | routes of similar length | 83.9% | −7.7 pts | 562 here, 114,074 there |
| Month: May | 80.9% | routes of similar length | 76.1% | +4.8 pts | 561 here, 116,124 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 496 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 → PIT flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
BOS → PIT cancelled 135 of 6,574 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 49. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 48.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 101 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 135 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
65 cancellations, 48.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
36 cancellations, 26.7% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
34 cancellations, 25.2% 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.
135 coded cancellations were recorded on BOS → PIT; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
54 min late
against a median of 9 min early
BOS → PIT has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 9 min early, but the worst tenth are 63 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.
Percentiles over 6,574 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PIT after arriving from BOS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.9% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.3% | Some 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 2.05% of the time and diverts 0.11% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,432 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 54 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,574 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BOS → PIT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.2% of the time, against 69.1% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 21.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 88.5% on time from 168 flights
- 7 AM: 91.3% on time from 407 flights
- 8 AM: 90.1% on time from 1,101 flights
- 9 AM: 81.7% on time from 249 flights
- 10 AM: 83.1% on time from 181 flights
- 11 AM: 88.0% on time from 383 flights
- 12 PM: 85.0% on time from 135 flights
- 1 PM: 81.2% on time from 273 flights
- 2 PM: 83.2% on time from 566 flights
- 3 PM: 73.6% on time from 502 flights
- 4 PM: 70.1% on time from 452 flights
- 5 PM: 65.8% on time from 410 flights
- 6 PM: 70.2% on time from 240 flights
- 7 PM: 68.6% on time from 312 flights
- 8 PM: 69.0% on time from 898 flights
- 9 PM: 72.2% on time from 266 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why BOS → PIT 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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BOS → PIT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on BOS → PIT, at 46.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.2% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 69.1%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue | 3,363 | 75.2% | 2.11% | -8 min | 10.7% |
| Republic Airways | 3,045 | 83.1% | 2.00% | -11 min | 7.0% |
JetBlue flew 52.5% of the 6,408 flights listed.
Republic Airways arrived on time 7.9 percentage points more often than JetBlue on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 9.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 75.8%
- Feb: 77.0%
- Mar: 79.6%
- Apr: 83.9%
- May: 80.9%
- Jun: 78.3%
- Jul: 70.6%
- Aug: 79.9%
- Sep: 76.2%
- Oct: 84.3%
- Nov: 85.3%
- Dec: 76.1%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 14.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 63.3% from 162 flights
- August 2023: 74.0% from 173 flights
- September 2023: 69.1% from 159 flights
- October 2023: 83.7% from 190 flights
- November 2023: 85.2% from 162 flights
- December 2023: 79.8% from 124 flights
- January 2024: 69.1% from 143 flights
- February 2024: 83.8% from 139 flights
- March 2024: 82.7% from 150 flights
- April 2024: 84.5% from 165 flights
- May 2024: 84.1% from 176 flights
- June 2024: 77.7% from 209 flights
- July 2024: 77.0% from 221 flights
- August 2024: 75.3% from 230 flights
- September 2024: 83.4% from 217 flights
- October 2024: 90.9% from 198 flights
- November 2024: 89.3% from 178 flights
- December 2024: 73.7% from 181 flights
- January 2025: 82.2% from 147 flights
- February 2025: 70.5% from 132 flights
- March 2025: 85.6% from 181 flights
- April 2025: 83.4% from 175 flights
- May 2025: 76.8% from 182 flights
- June 2025: 77.0% from 209 flights
- July 2025: 73.5% from 215 flights
- August 2025: 89.3% from 217 flights
- September 2025: 73.6% from 197 flights
- October 2025: 78.5% from 214 flights
- November 2025: 81.5% from 182 flights
- December 2025: 75.9% from 163 flights
- January 2026: 75.7% from 126 flights
- February 2026: too few flights to score (115)
- March 2026: 68.8% from 142 flights
- April 2026: 84.0% from 156 flights
- May 2026: 81.9% from 204 flights
- June 2026: 80.2% from 221 flights
- July 2026: 66.2% from 219 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.9% against 80.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,574 BOS → PIT 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