Carrier performance at one airport
OO→DTW
SkyWest Airlines at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County
- Departures
- 28,477
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #9 of 12
SkyWest Airlines at Detroit sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 28,477 flights, of which American Airlines flew 4,850 at 81.9% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, SkyWest Airlines runs 3 points behind the 76.7% weighted average across all carriers at DTW. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
74.1%
27,806 completed departures
Avg delay
97 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.11%
At DTW, this carrier only
Rank here
#9
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at DTW
These figures cover 28,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at DTW, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 81.9% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 70.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 3,308 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 4,850 | 81.9% | 98 min | 1.98% | B |
| Republic Airways | 6,251 | 81.7% | 76 min | 3.54% | B− |
| Envoy Air | 1,070 | 79.7% | 87 min | 3.08% | B− |
| United Airlines | 2,331 | 78.3% | 74 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 60,378 | 77.8% | 65 min | 1.48% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 550 | 76.8% | 52 min | 0.36% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,299 | 76.1% | 82 min | 5.31% | B− |
| Southwest Airlines | 4,460 | 74.4% | 50 min | 0.81% | C+ |
| SkyWest Airlines (this page) | 28,477 | 74.1% | 97 min | 2.11% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 6,187 | 73.9% | 70 min | 3.64% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,979 | 73.4% | 118 min | 6.87% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 3,308 | 70.6% | 92 min | 1.78% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.9% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where SkyWest Airlines flies from DTW
SkyWest Airlines operates 25 routes out of DTW with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DTW to ORD · Chicago | 2,563 | 68.5% | 98 min | 3.12% | C− |
| DTW to GRR · Grand Rapids | 1,459 | 73.4% | 102 min | 0.96% | C+ |
| DTW to OMA · Omaha | 1,144 | 75.5% | 90 min | 0.70% | B+ |
| DTW to AZO · Kalamazoo | 1,058 | 75.2% | 118 min | 2.46% | B |
| DTW to CLE · Cleveland | 1,015 | 74.8% | 89 min | 0.49% | C+ |
| DTW to ATW · Appleton | 974 | 74.5% | 98 min | 1.54% | C |
| DTW to ELM · Elmira | 936 | 77.1% | 95 min | 1.39% | B |
| DTW to MKE · Milwaukee | 849 | 70.4% | 96 min | 0.82% | C+ |
| DTW to BUF · Buffalo | 844 | 79.6% | 92 min | 1.30% | B |
| DTW to LAN · Lansing | 833 | 73.6% | 99 min | 0.84% | C+ |
| DTW to ALB · Albany | 795 | 76.7% | 99 min | 1.76% | B |
| DTW to PVD · Providence | 746 | 75.7% | 86 min | 2.01% | B |
| DTW to GRB · Green Bay | 737 | 75.5% | 108 min | 2.04% | B |
| DTW to SBN · South Bend | 711 | 71.0% | 104 min | 0.98% | C+ |
| DTW to IND · Indianapolis | 704 | 77.3% | 86 min | 1.28% | B |
| DTW to TVC · Traverse City | 693 | 72.3% | 82 min | 2.31% | C |
| DTW to IAD · Washington | 690 | 69.9% | 89 min | 1.16% | C |
| DTW to SDF · Louisville | 670 | 78.0% | 85 min | 1.64% | B |
| DTW to PLN · Pellston | 659 | 77.6% | 84 min | 13.96% | B− |
| DTW to FWA · Fort Wayne | 648 | 73.7% | 97 min | 0.62% | C+ |
| DTW to APN · Alpena | 632 | 81.3% | 79 min | 4.43% | B− |
| DTW to CMH · Columbus | 587 | 76.0% | 111 min | 1.53% | B |
| DTW to MEM · Memphis | 572 | 76.0% | 87 min | 1.40% | B |
| DTW to LEX · Lexington | 570 | 74.4% | 101 min | 1.58% | C |
| DTW to MSN · Madison | 542 | 71.3% | 83 min | 0.74% | C+ |
Flight by flight
SkyWest Airlines flight numbers from DTW
16 SkyWest Airlines flight numbers leaving DTW flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
- OO 4274to APN 08:4081.4%
- OO 4159to ATW 21:0971.2%
- OO 3909to AZO 22:5577.2%
- OO 3986to AZO 10:0577.4%
- OO 4278to CIU 17:5572.0%
- OO 4243to ESC 21:1582.2%
- OO 3917to FWA 20:0070.2%
- OO 4059to GRB 10:0080.1%
- OO 4290to IMT 10:0071.0%
- OO 3684to LAN 22:5575.9%
- OO 4013to LEX 19:5574.1%
- OO 4297to MQT 20:2078.8%
- OO 3715to OMA 19:4571.8%
- OO 3889to OMA 15:5071.4%
- OO 4335to PLN 15:5578.3%
- OO 3900to SBN 19:4563.4%
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 15 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,276 flights81.7%
- 8am–11am7,506 flights77.6%
- 11am–2pm3,836 flights76.2%
- 2pm–5pm6,858 flights71.9%
- 5pm–8pm3,231 flights66.7%
- 8pm–5am5,770 flights73.4%
Scale runs 60% to 85%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 81.7% of the time, against 66.7% for the evening window. That is 15 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 7,506 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
January is the weak month at 53.6% on time, against 88.0% in September. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. March was the busiest month here, with 2,591 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 69%Carrier
- 19%Extreme weather
- 10%National Airspace System
- 2%Late-arriving aircraft
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 19% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 3.2 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 700,219 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.11% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.25%.
12.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
28,477 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 88.0% on time and January 53.6%, a swing of 34 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of January before you think about anything else. 27,806 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SkyWest Airlines at DTW
How often is SkyWest Airlines at DTW delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 25.9% of the 28,477 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SkyWest Airlines at DTW?
American Airlines leads at 81.9% on time across 4,850 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 70.6%, a gap of 11 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on SkyWest Airlines at DTW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 81.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 66.7%, 15 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are January delays on SkyWest Airlines at DTW?
January is the weakest month at 53.6% on time, compared with 88.0% in September. Across the year that is 34 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.