Route reliability record
BWI→DTW
Baltimore to Detroit
- Flights
- 2,233
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 409 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 2,233 BWI to DTW flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,224 at 85.7% on time.
Best time to fly BWI to DTW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.0% of the time and Tuesday flights 85.9%, against 80.8% 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
80.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,187 completed flights
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.06%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
85.7% on time across 1,224 flights
These figures cover 2,233 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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 BWI to DTW
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 85.7% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 73.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 772 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 59 | 91.4% | 60 min | 1.69% | A |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,224 | 85.7% | 101 min | 1.80% | A |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 178 | 74.9% | 65 min | 1.69% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 772 | 73.7% | 58 min | 2.59% | C |
The spread between Delta and Southwest is 12 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 12 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on BWI 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 Baltimore to Detroit
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 3 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. BWI → DTWBaltimore to Detroit | Delta Air Lines | 84.2% | 85.7% | 1.80% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 2601 06:00 |
| 2. IAD → DTWWashington to Detroit | SkyWest Airlines | 76.3% | 77.2% | 1.16% | 8am–11am, Thu | — |
| 3. DCA → DTWWashington to Detroit | Delta Air Lines | 76.0% | 78.3% | 2.93% | 5am–8am, Sat | DL 2869 06:00 |
| 4. BWI → DTWBaltimore to Detroit | Southwest Airlines | 71.8% | 73.7% | 2.59% | 11am–2pm, Wed | — |
| 5. DCA → DTWWashington to Detroit | PSA Airlines | 63.5% | 67.8% | 6.33% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
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 26 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am382 flights92.0%
- 8am–11am444 flights83.2%
- 11am–2pm495 flights88.5%
- 2pm–5pm114 flights73.5%
- 5pm–8pm447 flights73.4%
- 8pm–5am351 flights66.3%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.0% of the time, against 66.3% for the overnight window. That is 26 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 495 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter BWI 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 BWI to DTW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.0% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 66.3%, a wide gap of 25.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.0%
- 8–11am83.2%
- 11am–2pm88.5%
- 2–5pm73.5%
- 5–8pm73.4%
- 8pm–5am66.3%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 20 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.
December is the weak month at 70.6% on time, against 90.9% in October. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 231 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 85.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 73.7%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 31,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 17%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 31,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 23 to one. The split is drawn from 31,430 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 11,000 of the 31,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 2.06% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 409 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 80.7% on time across 2,230 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 2,233 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. October runs 90.9% on time and December 70.6%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 2,187 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
BWI to DTW questions
How often is BWI to DTW delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.2% of the 2,233 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on BWI to DTW?
Delta Air Lines leads at 85.7% on time across 1,224 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 73.7%, a gap of 12 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 BWI to DTW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 66.3%, 26 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 December delays on BWI to DTW?
December is the weakest month at 70.6% on time, compared with 90.9% in October. Across the year that is 20 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 BWI — the return legseparate record
- Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (BWI) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on BWI to DTW85.7%
- Frontier Airlines on BWI to DTW74.9%
- Southwest Airlines on BWI to DTW73.7%
- BWI to ATL, a related route79.9%
- ORD to DTW, a related route71.1%
- BWI to MCO, a related route75.5%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record91.4%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record85.7%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record74.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. BWI to DTW and DTW to BWI 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.