Route reliability record
BNA→DTW
Nashville to Detroit
- Flights
- 2,410
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 456 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 2,410 BNA to DTW flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,406 at 86.0% on time.
Best time to fly BNA to DTW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 94.2% of the time and Wednesday flights 83.3%, against 77.4% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,379 completed flights
Avg delay
62 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.29%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
86.0% on time across 1,406 flights
These figures cover 2,410 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 5 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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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on BNA to DTW
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.0% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 64.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 879 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,406 | 86.0% | 93 min | 1.85% | A |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 104 | 79.6% | 76 min | 0.96% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 879 | 64.1% | 43 min | 0.46% | D+ |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 21 | 57.1% | 46 min | 0.00% | D+ |
The spread between Delta and Southwest is 22 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 22 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on BNA to DTW
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Nashville to Detroit
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. BNA → DTWNashville to Detroit | Delta Air Lines | 84.4% | 86.0% | 1.85% | 5am–8am, Thu | DL 2439 06:00 |
| 2. BNA → DTWNashville to Detroit | Southwest Airlines | 63.8% | 64.1% | 0.46% | 11am–2pm, Wed | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 46 points, against 22 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am385 flights94.2%
- 8am–11am582 flights83.0%
- 11am–2pm222 flights79.7%
- 2pm–5pm418 flights78.1%
- 5pm–8pm688 flights67.2%
- 8pm–5am115 flights47.8%
Scale runs 40% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 47.8% on time, against 94.2% 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. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 688 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter BNA to DTW by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On BNA to DTW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 94.2% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 47.8%, a wide gap of 46.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am94.2%
- 8–11am83.0%
- 11am–2pm79.7%
- 2–5pm78.1%
- 5–8pm67.2%
- 8pm–5am47.8%
best all US flightsScale 40% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 22 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
July is the worst month at 68.1% on time, 22 points below September, the best at 89.6%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. October was the busiest month here, with 233 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.9%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 49% of the 33,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
49% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 33,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 22 to one. The split is drawn from 33,275 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 12,000 of the 33,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.29% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
5.8% 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 an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 456 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 78.1% on time across 2,413 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 2,410 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in DTW after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 89.6% on time and July 68.1%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 2,379 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
BNA to DTW questions
How often is BNA to DTW delayed?
Roughly 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 22.6% of the 2,410 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on BNA to DTW?
Delta Air Lines leads at 86.0% on time across 1,406 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 64.1%, a gap of 22 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 BNA to DTW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 94.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 47.8%, 46 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 July delays on BNA to DTW?
July is the weakest month at 68.1% on time, compared with 89.6% in September. Across the year that is 22 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
- DTW to BNA — the return legseparate record
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on BNA to DTW86.0%
- Spirit Airlines on BNA to DTW79.6%
- Southwest Airlines on BNA to DTW64.1%
- BNA to ORD, a related route70.9%
- ORD to DTW, a related route71.1%
- BNA to DCA, a related route71.3%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record86.0%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record79.6%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record64.1%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. BNA to DTW and DTW to BNA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.