Route reliability record
DTW→BWI
Detroit to Baltimore
- Flights
- 2,230
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 409 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B, 3 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 about an hour on average. That rests on 2,230 DTW to BWI flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,224 at 82.0% on time.
Best time to fly DTW to BWI: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.9% of the time and Saturday flights 86.2%, against 80.7% 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
80.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,191 completed flights
Avg delay
62 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.43%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
82.0% on time across 1,224 flights
These figures cover 2,230 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DTW to BWI
The two carriers here are closely matched: 2 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 | 60 | 90.0% | 177 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,224 | 82.0% | 69 min | 1.63% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 768 | 79.8% | 47 min | 1.17% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 178 | 73.1% | 64 min | 1.69% | C |
No carrier stands out. Delta tops the table at 82.0%, 2 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
Flight by flight
Flights on DTW to BWI
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.
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Detroit to Baltimore
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. DTW → BWIDetroit to Baltimore | Delta Air Lines | 80.7% | 82.0% | 1.63% | 5am–8am, Sat | DL 1546 10:10 |
| 2. DTW → BWIDetroit to Baltimore | Southwest Airlines | 78.9% | 79.8% | 1.17% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 3. DTW → IADDetroit to Washington | SkyWest Airlines | 69.1% | 69.9% | 1.16% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 4. DTW → DCADetroit to Washington | Delta Air Lines | 66.3% | 68.2% | 2.81% | 8am–11am, Sat | DL 2476 10:00 |
| 5. DTW → DCADetroit to Washington | PSA Airlines | 65.2% | 69.9% | 6.76% | 11am–2pm, 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 34 points, against 2 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am511 flights92.9%
- 8am–11am384 flights83.8%
- 11am–2pm194 flights76.2%
- 2pm–5pm571 flights75.7%
- 5pm–8pm153 flights58.9%
- 8pm–5am417 flights79.6%
Scale runs 50% to 100%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 58.9% on time, against 92.9% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 571 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DTW to BWI 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 BWI, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 58.9%, a wide gap of 34.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.9%
- 8–11am83.8%
- 11am–2pm76.2%
- 2–5pm75.7%
- 5–8pm58.9%
- 8pm–5am79.6%
best all US flightsScale 50% 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 70.8% on time, against 90.5% 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 232 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 86.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.7%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 44% of the 26,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Carrier
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 44%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 11,000 of the 26,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 26,137 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 92.9% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.43% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.31%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.0% 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 about 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 80.8% on time across 2,233 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 2,230 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 BWI 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 90.5% on time and December 70.8%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 2,191 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DTW to BWI questions
How often is DTW to BWI 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 19.3% of the 2,230 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DTW to BWI?
Delta Air Lines leads at 82.0% on time across 1,224 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 79.8%, a gap of 2 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 BWI?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 58.9%, 34 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 DTW to BWI?
December is the weakest month at 70.8% on time, compared with 90.5% 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
- BWI to DTW — the return legseparate record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (BWI) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on DTW to BWI82.0%
- Southwest Airlines on DTW to BWI79.8%
- Frontier Airlines on DTW to BWI73.1%
- DTW to ORD, a related route72.2%
- ATL to BWI, a related route75.2%
- DTW to ATL, a related route78.9%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record90.0%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record82.0%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record79.8%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. DTW to BWI and BWI to DTW are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed DTW to BWI’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.