Route profile
PIT→IAD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Pittsburgh to Washington, 182 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 96% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,806 flights. How this is calculated
PIT → IAD arrives on time 88.7% of the time; the return trip, IAD → PIT, arrives on time 84.8% of the time, a 3.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PIT → IAD spends 26.4 minutes on the ground on a 182-mile trip: 17.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PIT and 9.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at IAD.
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 98% of 3,357 comparable routes.
92.5% on time in its best month (August) against 84.2% 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
18 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 2,806 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IAD after arriving from PIT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 25% | High risk |
| 45 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 5.6% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.1% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 1.9% | 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 1.03% of the time and diverts 0.04% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,776 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 18 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,806 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PIT → IAD flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 95.8% of the time, against 73.4% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 22.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 95.8% on time from 1,088 flights
- 7 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 94.3% on time from 406 flights
- 11 AM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 80.9% on time from 301 flights
- 3 PM: 73.4% on time from 381 flights
- 4 PM to 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 82.4% on time from 212 flights
- 8 PM: 85.6% on time from 311 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why PIT → IAD 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 → IAD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PIT → IAD, at 37.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 95.8% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 73.4%.
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 | 2,204 | 89.1% | 1.09% | -11 min | 2.8% |
| United Airlines | 602 | 87.3% | 0.83% | -9 min | 5.0% |
Republic Airways flew 78.5% of the 2,806 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| YX3679 Republic Airways | 6:15 AM | 793 | 95.2% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 6.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 85.8%
- Feb: 89.7%
- Mar: 89.6%
- Apr: 91.0%
- May: 88.7%
- Jun: 84.6%
- Jul: 84.2%
- Aug: 92.5%
- Sep: 92.1%
- Oct: 88.1%
- Nov: 91.3%
- Dec: 87.4%
July is historically the weakest month and August the strongest, a spread of 8.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (28)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (85)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (13)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (102)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (30)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (33)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (53)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (50)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (72)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (52)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (51)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (30)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (44)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (41)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (54)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (64)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (81)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (63)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (62)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (61)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (45)
- April 2025: 89.9% from 129 flights
- May 2025: too few flights to score (110)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (99)
- July 2025: 81.7% from 129 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (105)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (108)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (102)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (112)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (104)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (114)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (96)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (88)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (86)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (88)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 88.5% against 85.9% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,806 PIT → IAD 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