Flight number record
DL 2596
Delta Air Lines · Newark to Detroit
- Route
- EWR → DTW
- Departs
- 06:00
- Flights
- 365
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s DL 2596, check with Delta Air Lines.
DL 2596 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 13 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about 2.6 hours. That rests on 365 flights, with a median arrival 15 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, DL 2596's record is 13 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 128 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
90.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 354 completed flights
Avg delay
153 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.01%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
6.5%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 365 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 15 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Schedule
When DL 2596 flies
DL 2596 is scheduled to leave Newark (EWR) at 06:00 local time and reach Detroit (DTW) at 07:55. That slot held for 350 of the 365 scheduled departures in the data, so the figures below describe one steady operation rather than a number that moved around the clock.
- Departs 06:00350 flights95.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of scheduled departures at each local time. Times used on fewer than one flight in ten are not listed.
A 06:00 departure sits in the 5am–8am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 89.3%, and DL 2596 runs level with that at 90.1%. Early departures usually start with an aircraft that has not flown yet that day, which is most of why the window does well.
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Against the route
DL 2596 next to EWR to DTW
Every carrier on EWR to DTW combined arrived on time 79.9% of the time across 3,660 flights, so DL 2596 is 10 points ahead of it. Delta flew 1,612 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 79.6% on time. Across its whole network Delta Air Lines managed 81.1%, which this flight beats by 9 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DL 2596 | 365 | 90.1% | 153 min | 3.01% | A− |
| All Delta Air Lines on EWR–DTW | 1,612 | 79.6% | 108 min | 4.03% | B− |
| All carriers on EWR–DTW | 3,660 | 79.9% | 88 min | 5.63% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines, whole network | 1,039,517 | 81.1% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
Across the year
DL 2596 quarter by quarter
DL 2596 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 93.3% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2025 at 83.3%, a swing of 10 points on roughly 73 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights83.3%
- Oct–Dec 202592 flights92.1%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights90.7%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights93.3%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights85.0%
Scale runs 75% to 100%.
By weekday, DL 2596 ranged from 86.3% on Saturday to 94.2% on Wednesday. With about 52 flights behind each day, a spread of 8 points is inside normal variation, so the day you fly is not worth changing for this flight.
Arrival by arrival
How late DL 2596 runs when it is late
DL 2596 often beats the schedule: 188 of 354 completed flights, 53%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. When DL 2596 is late it tends to be very late: 23 of its 35 late arrivals were an hour or more behind, and 14 were two hours or more.
- 15+ min early188 flights53.1%
- Within 15 min131 flights37.0%
- 15–29 min late4 flights1.1%
- 30–59 min late8 flights2.3%
- 1–2 hours late9 flights2.5%
- 2+ hours late14 flights4.0%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 354 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 30 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 3 made it up before arrival. 8 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for DL 2596
The latest arrival of the period was on 18 June 2026, 14 hours 54 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 18 June 2026 | 14 hours 54 minutes | Carrier |
| 27 December 2025 | 6 hours 5 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 19 July 2026 | 5 hours 47 minutes | Carrier |
| 1 December 2025 | 5 hours 37 minutes | Carrier |
| 23 May 2026 | 5 hours 12 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why DL 2596 runs late
Carrier accounts for 68% of the 5,370 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 68%Carrier
- 19%Late-arriving aircraft
- 8%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 68%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 3,662 of the 5,370 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 5,370 delay minutes reported on DL 2596.
Cancellations run at 3.01%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 30 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.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
6.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about 2.6 hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
Every one of the 365 flights under DL 2596 in the data flew EWR to DTW. The number was not reused on any other city pair, which makes this a clean record of one route.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 365 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking DL 2596
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on DL 2596: 3.01% of its 365 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs about 2.6 hours, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- EWR to DTW, every carrier and departure
- DTW to EWR, the return direction
- Delta Air Lines 2577 on the same route81.0%
- Delta Air Lines 2566 on the same route83.1%
- Delta Air Lines 2573 on the same route73.7%
- Republic Airways 3437 on the same route85.1%
- Republic Airways 3586 on the same route81.1%
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on-time record
- Every Delta Air Lines flight number with a record
- The most and least reliable flight numbers in the US
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
A flight number here means Delta Air Lines’s own number as it reports to the DOT. How the figures are computed is on the methodology page.
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.