Carrier performance at one airport
NK→DTW
Spirit Airlines at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County
- Departures
- 8,616
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #7 of 12
Spirit Airlines at Detroit lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 8,616 flights, of which American Airlines flew 4,950 at 81.3% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Spirit Airlines runs half a point behind the 76.9% 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
76.5%
8,348 completed departures
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.83%
At DTW, this carrier only
Rank here
#7
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at DTW
These figures cover 8,616 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.3% 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 81.3% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 72.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,821 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 4,950 | 81.3% | 98 min | 2.00% | B |
| Republic Airways | 6,170 | 81.0% | 77 min | 3.40% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,168 | 78.4% | 85 min | 3.34% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines | 60,319 | 77.9% | 66 min | 1.34% | B |
| United Airlines | 2,371 | 77.8% | 73 min | 1.14% | B |
| Envoy Air | 968 | 77.5% | 82 min | 3.20% | B− |
| Spirit Airlines (this page) | 8,616 | 76.5% | 71 min | 2.83% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 4,427 | 76.1% | 49 min | 0.84% | B+ |
| PSA Airlines | 1,823 | 74.1% | 111 min | 5.81% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 551 | 74.1% | 48 min | 0.36% | C+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 28,504 | 73.9% | 97 min | 2.07% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,821 | 72.1% | 90 min | 1.60% | 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 Spirit Airlines flies from DTW
Spirit 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 LGA · New York | 999 | 69.6% | 77 min | 7.61% | C− |
| DTW to MCO · Orlando | 956 | 78.4% | 65 min | 0.94% | B+ |
| DTW to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 802 | 70.0% | 72 min | 2.49% | C |
| DTW to ATL · Atlanta | 677 | 75.0% | 74 min | 1.92% | B |
| DTW to LAS · Las Vegas | 564 | 81.1% | 51 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| DTW to EWR · Newark | 554 | 67.7% | 78 min | 8.30% | C− |
| DTW to LAX · Los Angeles | 546 | 80.3% | 66 min | 1.28% | B |
| DTW to TPA · Tampa | 521 | 74.7% | 63 min | 3.84% | C− |
| DTW to IAH · Houston | 403 | 78.5% | 85 min | 1.74% | B |
| DTW to RSW · Fort Myers | 386 | 73.8% | 61 min | 4.92% | C− |
| DTW to MIA · Miamithin sample | 295 | 79.3% | 66 min | 3.39% | B− |
| DTW to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 237 | 77.7% | 62 min | 1.27% | B |
| DTW to MSY · New Orleansthin sample | 177 | 83.0% | 69 min | 0.56% | B+ |
| DTW to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 154 | 77.9% | 60 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| DTW to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 146 | 77.9% | 73 min | 0.68% | B+ |
| DTW to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample | 132 | 78.8% | 79 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| DTW to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 124 | 85.8% | 71 min | 1.61% | A |
| DTW to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 109 | 82.6% | 103 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| DTW to MYR · Myrtle Beachthin sample | 93 | 87.1% | 38 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| DTW to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 88 | 83.9% | 95 min | 1.14% | B |
| DTW to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 77 | 83.1% | 76 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| DTW to BDL · Hartfordthin sample | 63 | 77.4% | 102 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| DTW to SJU · San Juanthin sample | 61 | 80.3% | 50 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| DTW to SAN · San Diegothin sample | 54 | 88.5% | 33 min | 1.85% | A |
| DTW to AUS · Austinthin sample | 51 | 84.0% | 68 min | 0.00% | B+ |
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 9 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,911 flights83.7%
- 8am–11am1,688 flights80.4%
- 11am–2pm885 flights80.8%
- 2pm–5pm1,031 flights72.5%
- 5pm–8pm1,623 flights69.2%
- 8pm–5am1,478 flights70.8%
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 83.7% of the time, against 69.2% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,911 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
September is the best month on the calendar at 86.2% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. August was the busiest month here, with 1,249 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 41%National Airspace System
- 34%Carrier
- 24%Late-arriving aircraft
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
41% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 58,000 minutes out of 140,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 140,215 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.83%, against 1.81% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% 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.
The sample behind these figures is 8,616 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 2.83% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 8,348 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Spirit Airlines at DTW
How often is Spirit 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 23.5% of the 8,616 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Spirit Airlines at DTW?
American Airlines leads at 81.3% on time across 4,950 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 72.1%, 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 Spirit Airlines at DTW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 83.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 69.2%, 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 March delays on Spirit Airlines at DTW?
March is the weakest month at 62.4% on time, compared with 86.2% in September. Across the year that is 24 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
- Spirit Airlines network-wide record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) all carriers
- DTW to LGA route record69.6%
- DTW to MCO route record78.4%
- DTW to FLL route record70.0%
- DTW to ATL route record75.0%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.