Route reliability record
DTW→ATL
Detroit to Atlanta
- Flights
- 4,832
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 594 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B+, 2 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 4,832 DTW to ATL flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,780 at 81.2% on time.
Best time to fly DTW to ATL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 86.3% of the time and Wednesday flights 83.9%, against 78.9% for the route overall.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 81.2% on time across 3,780 flights.
Key figures
On time
78.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,782 completed flights
Avg delay
75 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.79%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
81.2% on time across 3,780 flights
These figures cover 4,832 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 6 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 DTW to ATL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 81.2% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 66.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 546 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,780 | 81.2% | 68 min | 0.48% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 506 | 75.4% | 74 min | 2.37% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 546 | 66.0% | 103 min | 1.47% | C |
The spread between Delta and Frontier is 15 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 15 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on DTW to ATL
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.
- Delta 285610:3586.5% · 365 flights
- Delta 161106:1787.2% · 365 flights
- Delta 146716:2576.2% · 359 flights
- Delta 237505:2091.2% · 357 flights
- Delta 205318:0472.4% · 356 flights
- Delta 96507:2086.6% · 322 flights
- Delta 218812:2567.2% · 303 flights
- Delta 277709:2587.6% · 298 flights
- Frontier 126306:1077.1% · 294 flights
- Delta 122812:2180.3% · 273 flights
- Delta 165308:2582.4% · 272 flights
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Detroit to Atlanta
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. DTW → ATLDetroit to Atlanta | Delta Air Lines | 80.8% | 81.2% | 0.48% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 2375 05:20 |
| 2. DTW → ATLDetroit to Atlanta | Spirit Airlines | 73.6% | 75.4% | 2.37% | 11am–2pm, Wed | — |
| 3. DTW → ATLDetroit to Atlanta | Frontier Airlines | 65.0% | 66.0% | 1.47% | 5am–8am, Sat | F9 1263 06:10 |
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 18 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,277 flights86.3%
- 8am–11am1,016 flights86.3%
- 11am–2pm453 flights70.9%
- 2pm–5pm897 flights76.2%
- 5pm–8pm825 flights68.0%
- 8pm–5am364 flights73.8%
Scale runs 60% to 90%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 86.3% of the time, against 68.0% for the evening window. That is 18 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,277 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DTW to ATL 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 DTW to ATL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 86.3% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 68.0%, a wide gap of 18.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am86.3%
- 8–11am86.3%
- 11am–2pm70.9%
- 2–5pm76.2%
- 5–8pm68.0%
- 8pm–5am73.8%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
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 67.7% on time, 22 points below September, the best at 89.9%. 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. April was the busiest month here, with 428 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 73.6%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 43% of the 76,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Carrier
- 35%Late-arriving aircraft
- 20%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
35% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 76,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 21 to one. The split is drawn from 75,616 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 33,000 of the 76,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.79%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.7% 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.
The 594 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 76.4% on time across 4,821 flights, within 3 points 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 4,832 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 ATL 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 89.9% on time and July 67.7%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 4,782 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DTW to ATL questions
How often is DTW to ATL 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 21.1% of the 4,832 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 DTW to ATL?
Delta Air Lines leads at 81.2% on time across 3,780 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 66.0%, a gap of 15 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 DTW to ATL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 86.3% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.0%, 18 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 DTW to ATL?
July is the weakest month at 67.7% on time, compared with 89.9% 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
- ATL to DTW — the return legseparate record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on DTW to ATL81.2%
- Spirit Airlines on DTW to ATL75.4%
- Frontier Airlines on DTW to ATL66.0%
- DTW to ORD, a related route72.2%
- LGA to ATL, a related route75.5%
- DTW to LGA, a related route74.7%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record81.2%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record75.4%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record66.0%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. DTW to ATL and ATL to DTW 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.