Airport month record

DTWSEP

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County in September 2025

Departures: 10,014
Month: September 2025
National, same month: 83.4%
Carriers: 12

Historical statistics for September 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s September. For today’s conditions at DTW, see live FAA status.

DTW in September earns an A+. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 4 points better than the national rate of 83.4%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 10,014 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 503 at 89.3% on time.

Republic Airways is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 89.3% on time across 503 flights.

On time

87.1%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 9,977 completed departures

Avg delay

67 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.19%

Nationally in September: 0.51%

Whole year

76.9%

DTW across all twelve months

These figures cover 10,014 departures from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County in September 2025. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.

Against the year

September next to DTW's other months

Against DTW's own year, September ran 10 points better than the twelve-month rate of 76.9%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations were unusually low for DTW in September, at 0.19% against 1.82% across the year. Either side of it, August ran 81.3% on time and October 85.3%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

DTW month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	11,248	73.0%	80 min	1.97%	C
August 2025	10,916	81.3%	68 min	0.58%	B+
September 2025 (this page)	10,014	87.1%	67 min	0.19%	A+
October 2025	10,950	85.3%	66 min	0.27%	A+
November 2025	9,887	78.4%	78 min	2.59%	B
December 2025	9,934	62.0%	87 min	2.52%	D
January 2026	9,518	64.8%	83 min	3.92%	D−
February 2026	9,122	75.7%	77 min	2.13%	B
March 2026	10,701	71.6%	87 min	4.02%	C−
April 2026	10,417	81.1%	65 min	1.27%	B
May 2026	10,112	80.9%	68 min	1.27%	B
June 2026	9,869	79.1%	73 min	1.43%	B

Departure window

The best time of day to leave DTW in September

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 points, against 3 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,172 flights94.4%
8am–11am2,585 flights90.5%
11am–2pm1,363 flights87.7%
2pm–5pm1,827 flights84.3%
5pm–8pm1,352 flights78.6%
8pm–5am1,715 flights86.0%

Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.4% of the time, against 78.6% for the evening window. That is 16 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 2,585 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 91.5% on time and Thursday the weakest at 83.8%. 8 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at DTW in September

The five carriers here are closely matched: 3 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.

Carriers at DTW in September 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Delta Air Lines	4,813	87.1%	56 min	0.02%	A+
SkyWest Airlines	2,282	88.0%	67 min	0.04%	A+
Spirit Airlines	931	86.2%	74 min	0.43%	A+
Republic Airways	503	89.3%	82 min	0.99%	A+
American Airlines	421	87.4%	146 min	1.19%	A
Southwest Airlinesthin sample	346	87.9%	50 min	0.00%	A+
United Airlinesthin sample	259	84.6%	64 min	0.00%	B+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	155	81.2%	142 min	0.65%	B+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	127	80.2%	76 min	0.79%	B+
PSA Airlinesthin sample	86	84.9%	87 min	0.00%	B+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	57	86.0%	36 min	0.00%	A+
Envoy Airthin sample	34	84.8%	46 min	2.94%	B

No carrier stands out. Republic tops the table at 89.3%, 3 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of DTW in September

Routes from DTW in September 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
DTW to ORD · Chicago	481	80.8%	61 min	0.42%	B+
DTW to ATL · Atlanta	426	89.9%	52 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to LGA · New York	365	83.3%	78 min	0.82%	B+
DTW to EWR · Newarkthin sample	359	83.9%	78 min	1.39%	B
DTW to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	289	83.3%	70 min	1.73%	B
DTW to CLT · Charlottethin sample	283	88.7%	129 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	266	87.2%	129 min	0.38%	A+
DTW to DEN · Denverthin sample	257	89.5%	78 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to MCO · Orlandothin sample	250	86.8%	51 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	247	83.2%	68 min	0.00%	B+
DTW to BOS · Bostonthin sample	244	72.8%	71 min	0.41%	C+
DTW to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	239	81.6%	49 min	0.00%	B+
DTW to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	229	88.2%	58 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	218	87.2%	96 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	201	90.0%	41 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	183	85.6%	102 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to IAH · Houstonthin sample	181	94.5%	58 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to SEA · Seattlethin sample	176	89.8%	42 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	167	89.2%	55 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	152	77.6%	59 min	0.00%	B+
DTW to MDW · Chicagothin sample	150	85.3%	51 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to TPA · Tampathin sample	149	95.9%	49 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to STL · St. Louisthin sample	148	91.9%	67 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	145	93.8%	51 min	0.00%	A+
DTW to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	138	90.6%	62 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held DTW up in September

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 50% of the 86,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

Carrier
50%
National Airspace System
24%
Late-arriving aircraft
20%
Extreme weather
6%
Security
0%

The largest share of delay minutes, 50%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 43,000 of the 86,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 86,469 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.19%, below the national 0.51% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.3% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 5.4% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.

What to do with this

Flying from DTW in September

For a September trip through DTW: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 87.1% on time with 0.19% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW), the whole year
DTW in July73.0%
DTW in August81.3%
DTW in October85.3%
DTW in November78.4%
DTW in December62.0%
DTW in January64.8%
DTW in February75.7%
DTW in March71.6%
DTW in April81.1%
DTW in May80.9%
DTW in June79.1%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures