Route reliability record
DFW→DTW
Dallas-Fort Worth to Detroit
- Flights
- 3,482
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 986 mi
- Carriers
- 5
This route lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 3,482 DFW to DTW flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,405 at 84.8% on time.
Best time to fly DFW to DTW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.2% of the time and Tuesday flights 80.4%, against 76.3% 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
76.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,410 completed flights
Avg delay
75 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.92%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
84.8% on time across 1,405 flights
These figures cover 3,482 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.6% 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 DFW to DTW
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 84.8% of the time; American Airlines manages 68.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,623 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 14 | 92.9% | 51 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,405 | 84.8% | 95 min | 1.64% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 153 | 80.1% | 91 min | 1.31% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 287 | 78.7% | 69 min | 1.39% | B |
| American Airlines | 1,623 | 68.0% | 66 min | 2.34% | C |
The spread between Delta and American is 17 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 17 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on DFW 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 Dallas-Fort Worth 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. DFW → DTWDallas-Fort Worth to Detroit | Delta Air Lines | 83.4% | 84.8% | 1.64% | 5am–8am, Tue | DL 2183 05:30 |
| 2. DFW → DTWDallas-Fort Worth to Detroit | American Airlines | 66.4% | 68.0% | 2.34% | 8am–11am, 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 41 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am870 flights90.2%
- 8am–11am140 flights85.3%
- 11am–2pm1,076 flights77.3%
- 2pm–5pm490 flights65.3%
- 5pm–8pm769 flights69.3%
- 8pm–5am137 flights48.9%
Scale runs 40% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 48.9% on time, against 90.2% 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 1,076 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DFW 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 DFW to DTW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.2% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 48.9%, a wide gap of 41.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.2%
- 8–11am85.3%
- 11am–2pm77.3%
- 2–5pm65.3%
- 5–8pm69.3%
- 8pm–5am48.9%
best all US flightsScale 40% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 19 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.
June is the worst month at 66.3% on time, 19 points below September, the best at 84.9%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 318 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.0%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 60,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 35%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 60,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 60,265 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 21,000 of the 60,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.92% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.14%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.6% 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.
The 986 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg runs 75.8% on time across 3,482 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 3,482 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 84.9% on time and June 66.3%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 3,410 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DFW to DTW questions
How often is DFW 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 23.7% of the 3,482 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 DFW to DTW?
Delta Air Lines leads at 84.8% on time across 1,405 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 68.0%, a gap of 17 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 DFW to DTW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 48.9%, 41 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 June delays on DFW to DTW?
June is the weakest month at 66.3% on time, compared with 84.9% in September. Across the year that is 19 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 DFW — the return legseparate record
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on DFW to DTW84.8%
- Spirit Airlines on DFW to DTW80.1%
- Frontier Airlines on DFW to DTW78.7%
- American Airlines on DFW to DTW68.0%
- DFW to ORD, a related route68.8%
- ORD to DTW, a related route71.1%
- DFW to ATL, a related route75.6%
- Envoy Air on-time record92.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record84.8%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record80.1%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DFW to DTW and DTW to DFW 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.