Route reliability record
DTW→BOS
Detroit to Boston
- Flights
- 2,572
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 632 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 2,572 DTW to BOS flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,716 at 74.6% on time.
Best time to fly DTW to BOS: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.9% of the time and Saturday flights 81.0%, against 73.6% 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
73.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,501 completed flights
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.72%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
74.6% on time across 1,716 flights
These figures cover 2,572 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.7% 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 DTW to BOS
The two carriers here are closely matched: 4 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 107 | 75.7% | 59 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,716 | 74.6% | 65 min | 1.98% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 747 | 70.9% | 84 min | 4.69% | C− |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 2 | 0.0% | 20 min | 50.00% | F− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 4.7% 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 DTW to BOS
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 Detroit to Boston
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. 1 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. DTW → PVDDetroit to Providence | SkyWest Airlines | 74.2% | 75.7% | 2.01% | 8am–11am, Thu (route) | — |
| 2. DTW → BOSDetroit to Boston | Delta Air Lines | 73.1% | 74.6% | 1.98% | 5am–8am, Sat | DL 1163 07:00 |
| 3. DTW → BOSDetroit to Boston | JetBlue Airways | 67.6% | 70.9% | 4.69% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
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 36 points, against 4 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am518 flights90.9%
- 8am–11am571 flights81.7%
- 11am–2pm117 flights75.9%
- 2pm–5pm453 flights64.5%
- 5pm–8pm460 flights54.7%
- 8pm–5am453 flights70.9%
Scale runs 45% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 54.7% on time, against 90.9% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 571 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DTW to BOS 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 BOS, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 54.7%, a wide gap of 36.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.9%
- 8–11am81.7%
- 11am–2pm75.9%
- 2–5pm64.5%
- 5–8pm54.7%
- 8pm–5am70.9%
best all US flightsScale 45% 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.
July is the worst month at 61.2% on time, 20 points below February, the best at 80.7%. 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 279 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 81.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.3%, a spread of 14 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 43% of the 47,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%National Airspace System
- 29%Carrier
- 27%Late-arriving aircraft
- 1%Extreme weather
43% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 20,000 minutes out of 47,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 46,774 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.72%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 40 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
11.7% 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 632 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 75.7% on time across 2,575 flights, within 2 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 2,572 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 BOS 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. February runs 80.7% on time and July 61.2%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 2,501 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DTW to BOS questions
How often is DTW to BOS 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 26.4% of the 2,572 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 BOS?
Delta Air Lines leads at 74.6% on time across 1,716 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 70.9%, a gap of 4 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 BOS?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 54.7%, 36 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 BOS?
July is the weakest month at 61.2% on time, compared with 80.7% in February. 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
- BOS to DTW — the return legseparate record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Boston Logan International (BOS) delay statistics
- Spirit Airlines on DTW to BOS75.7%
- Delta Air Lines on DTW to BOS74.6%
- JetBlue Airways on DTW to BOS70.9%
- DTW to ORD, a related route72.2%
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- DTW to ATL, a related route78.9%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record75.7%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record74.6%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record70.9%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. DTW to BOS and BOS 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.