Route reliability record
DTW→CLT
Detroit to Charlotte
- Flights
- 3,476
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 500 mi
- Carriers
- 5
This route lands a B, 6 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 3,476 DTW to CLT flights, of which American Airlines flew 2,050 at 84.6% on time.
Best time to fly DTW to CLT: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.2% of the time and Wednesday flights 88.7%, against 83.3% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 6 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 60 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
83.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,409 completed flights
Avg delay
90 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.81%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
84.6% on time across 2,050 flights
These figures cover 3,476 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 13 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 CLT
The two carriers here are closely matched: 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 1 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 2,050 | 84.6% | 104 min | 1.90% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 54 | 83.0% | 66 min | 1.85% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,341 | 81.9% | 70 min | 1.64% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 30 | 58.6% | 172 min | 3.33% | D− |
No carrier stands out. American tops the table at 84.6%, 3 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 CLT
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 Charlotte
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 → CLTDetroit to Charlotte | American Airlines | 83.0% | 84.6% | 1.90% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 2. DTW → CLTDetroit to Charlotte | Delta Air Lines | 80.6% | 81.9% | 1.64% | 8am–11am, Wed | DL 2481 07:05 |
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 17 points, against 3 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am899 flights87.2%
- 8am–11am636 flights88.2%
- 11am–2pm478 flights86.3%
- 2pm–5pm674 flights81.6%
- 5pm–8pm411 flights78.0%
- 8pm–5am378 flights71.0%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 88.2% of the time, against 71.0% for the overnight window. That is 17 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 899 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DTW to CLT 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 CLT, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 88.2% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 71.0%, a wide gap of 17.2 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am87.2%
- 8–11am88.2%
- 11am–2pm86.3%
- 2–5pm81.6%
- 5–8pm78.0%
- 8pm–5am71.0%
best all US flightsScale 60% 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.
December is the weak month at 71.8% on time, against 91.0% 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 321 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 75.3%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 49% of the 51,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%Carrier
- 39%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
39% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 51,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 37 to one. The split is drawn from 51,350 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 49%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 25,000 of the 51,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.81% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.12%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.5% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 500 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 81.7% on time across 3,475 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 3,476 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 CLT 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 91.0% on time and December 71.8%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 3,409 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DTW to CLT questions
How often is DTW to CLT delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 16.7% of the 3,476 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 DTW to CLT?
American Airlines leads at 84.6% on time across 2,050 flights. Delta Air Lines is at the other end on 81.9%, a gap of 3 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 CLT?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 88.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 71.0%, 17 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 CLT?
December is the weakest month at 71.8% on time, compared with 91.0% in October. 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
- CLT to DTW — the return legseparate record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- American Airlines on DTW to CLT84.6%
- Delta Air Lines on DTW to CLT81.9%
- DTW to ORD, a related route72.2%
- MCO to CLT, a related route78.6%
- DTW to ATL, a related route78.9%
- PSA Airlines on-time record100.0%
- American Airlines on-time record84.6%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record83.0%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. DTW to CLT and CLT 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.