Route reliability record
DCA→DTW
Washington to Detroit
- Flights
- 2,972
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 405 mi
- Carriers
- 5
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.0% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 2,972 DCA to DTW flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,741 at 78.3% on time.
Best time to fly DCA to DTW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.2% of the time and Saturday flights 83.4%, against 75.3% 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
75.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,847 completed flights
Avg delay
82 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.04%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
78.3% on time across 1,741 flights
These figures cover 2,972 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to DTW
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 78.3% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 67.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 948 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 2 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 277 | 81.2% | 72 min | 3.25% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,741 | 78.3% | 84 min | 2.93% | B |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 4 | 75.0% | 396 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PSA Airlines | 948 | 67.8% | 80 min | 6.33% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.3% 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.
Flight by flight
Flights on DCA 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 Washington 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 29 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am528 flights91.2%
- 8am–11am536 flights82.7%
- 11am–2pm566 flights81.7%
- 2pm–5pm207 flights65.1%
- 5pm–8pm544 flights63.4%
- 8pm–5am591 flights62.5%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 62.5% on time, against 91.2% 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 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 591 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DCA 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 DCA to DTW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.2% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 62.5%, a wide gap of 28.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.2%
- 8–11am82.7%
- 11am–2pm81.7%
- 2–5pm65.1%
- 5–8pm63.4%
- 8pm–5am62.5%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 26 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 61.6% on time, 26 points below October, the best at 88.0%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 271 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 83.4% on time and Thursday the weakest at 71.3%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 53% of the 58,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 53%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
53% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 58,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. The split is drawn from 57,598 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 91.2% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.04%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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 stage length
What a delay here actually costs
10.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 405 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 68.3% on time across 2,971 flights, 7 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 7 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,972 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 delay figures matter less here than the 4.04% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; 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. 2,847 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DCA to DTW questions
How often is DCA to DTW delayed?
About 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 24.7% of the 2,972 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DCA to DTW?
Delta Air Lines leads at 78.3% on time across 1,741 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 67.8%, a gap of 11 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 DCA to DTW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 62.5%, 29 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 DCA to DTW?
July is the weakest month at 61.6% on time, compared with 88.0% in October. Across the year that is 26 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 DCA — the return legseparate record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on DCA to DTW81.2%
- Delta Air Lines on DCA to DTW78.3%
- PSA Airlines on DCA to DTW67.8%
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- ORD to DTW, a related route71.1%
- DCA to ORD, a related route73.8%
- Envoy Air on-time record100.0%
- Republic Airways on-time record81.2%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record78.3%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DCA to DTW and DTW to DCA 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.