Route profile
PIT→BOS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Pittsburgh to Boston, 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 36% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,573 flights. How this is calculated
PIT → BOS arrives on time 80.2% of the time; the return trip, BOS → PIT, arrives on time 78.8% of the time.
PIT → BOS spends 26.5 minutes on the ground on a 496-mile trip: 16.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PIT and 10.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at BOS.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where PIT to BOS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PIT to BOS struggles most at 6 PM: 60.2% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9.9 points behind the 70.1% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
PIT to BOS holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 84.7% on time to their 80.3%, a 4.4 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5.6 points.
In September, PIT to BOS runs 14.5 points below routes of similar length, 69.5% on time to 84.0%. Against all other routes the gap is 12.9 points.
March is kinder to PIT to BOS than to routes of similar length: 85.8% on time against 79.2%, 6.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.9 points.
JetBlue does better on PIT to BOS than on its routes of similar length: 77.3% on time here, 73.0% there, 4.3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.1 points.
PIT to BOS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 60.2% | routes of similar length | 70.1% | −9.9 pts | 465 here, 72,588 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 84.7% | routes of similar length | 80.3% | +4.4 pts | 724 here, 166,272 there |
| Month: September | 69.5% | routes of similar length | 84.0% | −14.5 pts | 558 here, 114,078 there |
| Month: March | 85.8% | routes of similar length | 79.2% | +6.6 pts | 471 here, 110,552 there |
| Airline: JetBlue | 77.3% | routes of similar length | 73.0% | +4.3 pts | 3,281 here, 19,131 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 PIT → BOS flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
PIT → BOS cancelled 151 of 6,573 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 44. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 42.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 103 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 151 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.
64 cancellations, 42.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
45 cancellations, 29.8% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
42 cancellations, 27.8% 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.
151 coded cancellations were recorded on PIT → BOS; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
50 min late
against a median of 10 min early
PIT → BOS has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 10 min early, but the worst tenth are 60 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 6,573 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BOS after arriving from PIT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.7% | 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 2.30% 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 6,415 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 50 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,573 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PIT → BOS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.8% of the time, against 63.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 27.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 91.3% on time from 1,479 flights
- 7 AM: 88.7% on time from 301 flights
- 8 AM: 91.5% on time from 155 flights
- 9 AM: 86.0% on time from 279 flights
- 10 AM: 89.3% on time from 497 flights
- 11 AM: 85.5% on time from 808 flights
- 12 PM: 75.5% on time from 277 flights
- 1 PM: 74.1% on time from 244 flights
- 2 PM: 74.9% on time from 284 flights
- 3 PM: 69.0% on time from 171 flights
- 4 PM: 71.0% on time from 296 flights
- 5 PM: 74.1% on time from 632 flights
- 6 PM: 60.2% on time from 487 flights
- 7 PM: 68.3% on time from 402 flights
- 8 PM: 62.8% on time from 244 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why PIT → BOS runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for PIT → BOS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PIT → BOS, at 37.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.8% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 63.6%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue | 3,363 | 77.3% | 2.35% | -9 min | 9.9% |
| Republic Airways | 3,044 | 84.3% | 2.10% | -11 min | 6.1% |
JetBlue flew 52.5% of the 6,407 flights listed.
Republic Airways arrived on time 7.0 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.
YX5690 (6:08 AM) arrived on time 92.3% of the time, 19.9 points more often than B62186 (6:00 AM) at 72.4%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 9.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.4%
- Feb: 82.7%
- Mar: 85.8%
- Apr: 87.1%
- May: 82.5%
- Jun: 78.4%
- Jul: 73.8%
- Aug: 77.4%
- Sep: 69.5%
- Oct: 81.5%
- Nov: 89.6%
- Dec: 79.8%
September is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 20.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 73.5% from 161 flights
- August 2023: 78.1% from 173 flights
- September 2023: 60.0% from 160 flights
- October 2023: 87.2% from 189 flights
- November 2023: 90.1% from 162 flights
- December 2023: 87.8% from 124 flights
- January 2024: 77.4% from 143 flights
- February 2024: 83.1% from 139 flights
- March 2024: 89.3% from 150 flights
- April 2024: 83.9% from 165 flights
- May 2024: 79.7% from 177 flights
- June 2024: 77.2% from 208 flights
- July 2024: 78.6% from 221 flights
- August 2024: 73.3% from 230 flights
- September 2024: 77.9% from 217 flights
- October 2024: 91.5% from 199 flights
- November 2024: 91.0% from 177 flights
- December 2024: 77.1% from 181 flights
- January 2025: 80.1% from 147 flights
- February 2025: 82.9% from 132 flights
- March 2025: 87.8% from 181 flights
- April 2025: 89.7% from 175 flights
- May 2025: 76.7% from 182 flights
- June 2025: 76.7% from 210 flights
- July 2025: 72.1% from 215 flights
- August 2025: 81.1% from 217 flights
- September 2025: 67.5% from 197 flights
- October 2025: 66.8% from 213 flights
- November 2025: 87.7% from 182 flights
- December 2025: 76.7% from 164 flights
- January 2026: 84.3% from 125 flights
- February 2026: too few flights to score (115)
- March 2026: 79.6% from 143 flights
- April 2026: 87.7% from 155 flights
- May 2026: 90.2% from 204 flights
- June 2026: 81.4% from 221 flights
- July 2026: 70.7% from 219 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.1% against 81.0% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,573 PIT → BOS 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