Carrier performance at one airport
OO→DTW
SkyWest Airlines at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County
- Departures
- 28,581
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #11 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, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.4%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 28,581 flights, of which American Airlines flew 5,018 at 81.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, SkyWest Airlines runs 3 points behind the 76.6% 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
73.3%
27,928 completed departures
Avg delay
97 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.04%
At DTW, this carrier only
Rank here
#11
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at DTW
These figures cover 29,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 13.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at DTW, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 81.2% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 72.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,735 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 5,018 | 81.2% | 95 min | 2.05% | B |
| Republic Airways | 6,050 | 80.5% | 77 min | 3.44% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,171 | 78.0% | 84 min | 3.16% | B− |
| Southwest Airlines | 4,418 | 77.6% | 50 min | 0.84% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 60,438 | 77.5% | 66 min | 1.31% | B |
| United Airlines | 2,353 | 77.4% | 78 min | 1.10% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 9,657 | 76.9% | 71 min | 2.65% | B |
| Envoy Air | 872 | 75.1% | 78 min | 2.87% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 1,745 | 74.2% | 111 min | 5.79% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 551 | 74.1% | 48 min | 0.36% | C+ |
| SkyWest Airlines (this page) | 28,581 | 73.3% | 97 min | 2.04% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,735 | 72.5% | 90 min | 1.72% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 5.8% 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 | 2,383 | 68.9% | 97 min | 2.94% | C |
| DTW to GRR · Grand Rapids | 1,513 | 72.1% | 104 min | 1.06% | C |
| DTW to OMA · Omaha | 1,136 | 72.7% | 87 min | 0.62% | C+ |
| DTW to ATW · Appleton | 993 | 74.0% | 102 min | 1.41% | C |
| DTW to AZO · Kalamazoo | 970 | 73.7% | 121 min | 1.86% | C |
| DTW to MKE · Milwaukee | 919 | 72.2% | 95 min | 0.65% | C+ |
| DTW to LAN · Lansing | 910 | 74.4% | 97 min | 0.88% | C+ |
| DTW to CLE · Cleveland | 906 | 72.4% | 90 min | 0.55% | C+ |
| DTW to ELM · Elmira | 905 | 76.3% | 99 min | 1.33% | B |
| DTW to ALB · Albany | 809 | 76.9% | 102 min | 1.61% | B |
| DTW to IAD · Washington | 803 | 68.5% | 92 min | 1.25% | C |
| DTW to SDF · Louisville | 795 | 75.7% | 78 min | 1.51% | B |
| DTW to IND · Indianapolis | 714 | 76.1% | 85 min | 1.26% | B |
| DTW to SBN · South Bend | 704 | 68.5% | 99 min | 1.14% | C |
| DTW to TVC · Traverse City | 697 | 74.2% | 86 min | 2.15% | C |
| DTW to FWA · Fort Wayne | 695 | 70.3% | 97 min | 0.58% | C+ |
| DTW to PLN · Pellston | 662 | 78.8% | 90 min | 13.90% | B− |
| DTW to APN · Alpena | 629 | 82.2% | 83 min | 4.61% | B− |
| DTW to PVD · Providence | 621 | 75.5% | 81 min | 2.25% | B |
| DTW to GRB · Green Bay | 614 | 71.5% | 109 min | 2.44% | C |
| DTW to MEM · Memphis | 590 | 76.3% | 87 min | 1.36% | B |
| DTW to PIT · Pittsburgh | 588 | 72.3% | 91 min | 0.68% | C+ |
| DTW to MSN · Madison | 562 | 70.9% | 82 min | 0.71% | C+ |
| DTW to BUF · Buffalo | 546 | 77.5% | 96 min | 1.65% | B |
| DTW to CMH · Columbus | 529 | 73.9% | 123 min | 1.51% | C |
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 17 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,108 flights81.0%
- 8am–11am7,743 flights77.3%
- 11am–2pm3,939 flights76.0%
- 2pm–5pm6,868 flights71.0%
- 5pm–8pm3,254 flights64.5%
- 8pm–5am5,669 flights72.0%
Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 64.5% on time, against 81.0% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in.
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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 71%Carrier
- 18%Extreme weather
- 10%National Airspace System
- 2%Late-arriving aircraft
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 18% 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 2.8 times the usual weather exposure.
Cancellations sit at 2.04% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.24%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 13.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
28,581 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.
Common questions
SkyWest Airlines at DTW
How often is SkyWest Airlines at DTW delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 26.7% of the 28,581 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% 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 81.2% on time across 5,018 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 72.5%, a gap of 9 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 81.0% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 64.5%, 17 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, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.