Route profile
IND→BWI
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Indianapolis to Baltimore, 516 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 85% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,747 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IND → BWI arrives on time 84.1% of the time; the return trip, BWI → IND, arrives on time 75.9% of the time, an 8.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IND → BWI spends 17.7 minutes on the ground on a 516-mile trip: 12.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IND and 5.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at BWI.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where IND to BWI differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IND to BWI is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 11 AM: 95.4% arrive on time, 12.2 points ahead of the 83.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.4 points.
IND to BWI holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 84.6% on time to their 76.9%, a 7.7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
June is kinder to IND to BWI than to routes of similar length: 83.8% on time against 74.1%, 9.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 11.1 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on IND to BWI than on its routes of similar length: 84.1% on time here, 78.3% there, 5.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.7 points.
IND to BWI against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 11 AM departures | 95.4% | routes of similar length | 83.2% | +12.2 pts | 130 here, 90,163 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 84.6% | routes of similar length | 76.9% | +7.7 pts | 571 here, 232,755 there |
| Month: June | 83.8% | routes of similar length | 74.1% | +9.7 pts | 339 here, 127,742 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 84.1% | routes of similar length | 78.3% | +5.8 pts | 3,701 here, 391,672 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 516 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
26 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 3,747 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BWI after arriving from IND.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.7% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.6% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.6% | 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 1.04% of the time and diverts 0.19% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,701 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 26 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,747 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IND → BWI flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 94.2% of the time, against 67.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 26.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 95.2% on time from 653 flights
- 6 AM: 91.3% on time from 232 flights
- 7 AM: 93.2% on time from 132 flights
- 8 AM: 89.5% on time from 162 flights
- 9 AM: 93.2% on time from 292 flights
- 10 AM: 95.1% on time from 185 flights
- 11 AM: 95.4% on time from 131 flights
- 12 PM: 89.1% on time from 229 flights
- 1 PM: 86.1% on time from 204 flights
- 2 PM: 72.3% on time from 149 flights
- 3 PM: 73.8% on time from 257 flights
- 4 PM: 72.4% on time from 166 flights
- 5 PM: 77.0% on time from 201 flights
- 6 PM: 71.0% on time from 233 flights
- 7 PM: 67.5% on time from 280 flights
- 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 74.2% on time from 164 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why IND → BWI 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 IND → BWI. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IND → BWI, at 50.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 94.2% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 67.9%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 3,747 | 84.1% | 1.04% | -6 min | 4.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 10.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.3%
- Feb: 89.3%
- Mar: 83.5%
- Apr: 90.1%
- May: 81.5%
- Jun: 83.8%
- Jul: 75.5%
- Aug: 84.4%
- Sep: 88.2%
- Oct: 85.8%
- Nov: 87.3%
- Dec: 78.9%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 14.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.9% against 83.8% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.1 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,747 IND → BWI 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