Route reliability record
DTW→EWR
Detroit to Newark
- Flights
- 3,642
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 488 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 3,642 DTW to EWR flights, of which Republic Airways flew 1,539 at 81.8% on time.
Best time to fly DTW to EWR: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.1% of the time and Wednesday flights 81.4%, against 77.4% for the route overall.
Republic Airways is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 81.8% on time across 1,539 flights.
Key figures
On time
77.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,435 completed flights
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.55%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
81.8% on time across 1,539 flights
These figures cover 3,642 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.8% 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 EWR
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 81.8% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 67.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 434 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlinesthin sample | 57 | 91.1% | 112 min | 1.75% | A |
| Republic Airways | 1,539 | 81.8% | 75 min | 6.43% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,612 | 75.4% | 78 min | 3.91% | B− |
| Spirit Airlines | 434 | 67.6% | 72 min | 8.99% | C− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 9.0% 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 EWR
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 Newark
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 → JFKDetroit to New York | JetBlue Airways | 79.1% | 84.6% | 6.52% | 5am–8am, Fri | — |
| 2. DTW → JFKDetroit to New York | Delta Air Lines | 77.0% | 79.7% | 3.37% | 8am–11am, Wed | DL 2934 16:18 |
| 3. DTW → EWRDetroit to Newark | Republic Airways | 76.5% | 81.8% | 6.43% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 4. DTW → LGADetroit to New York | Delta Air Lines | 73.3% | 76.4% | 4.04% | 5am–8am, Sat | DL 1487 07:00 |
| 5. DTW → EWRDetroit to Newark | Delta Air Lines | 72.5% | 75.4% | 3.91% | 5am–8am, Tue | DL 2566 07:00 |
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 22 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am764 flights87.1%
- 8am–11am688 flights86.4%
- 11am–2pm330 flights82.1%
- 2pm–5pm709 flights74.3%
- 5pm–8pm640 flights66.3%
- 8pm–5am511 flights65.1%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 87.1% of the time, against 65.1% for the overnight window. That is 22 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 764 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DTW to EWR 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 EWR, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 87.1% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 65.1%, a wide gap of 22.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am87.1%
- 8–11am86.4%
- 11am–2pm82.1%
- 2–5pm74.3%
- 5–8pm66.3%
- 8pm–5am65.1%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 24 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 64.1% on time, against 88.1% in May. 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. September was the busiest month here, with 359 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 69.7%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 46% of the 59,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%National Airspace System
- 31%Carrier
- 22%Late-arriving aircraft
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% 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 27,000 minutes out of 59,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 58,960 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 5.55%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in twenty 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
9.8% 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.
At 488 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 79.9% on time across 3,660 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 3,642 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 EWR after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.55% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 3,435 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DTW to EWR questions
How often is DTW to EWR delayed?
Roughly 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 22.6% of the 3,642 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 EWR?
Republic Airways leads at 81.8% on time across 1,539 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 67.6%, a gap of 14 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 EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.1% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 65.1%, 22 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 EWR?
December is the weakest month at 64.1% on time, compared with 88.1% in May. Across the year that is 24 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
- EWR to DTW — the return legseparate record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on DTW to EWR81.8%
- Delta Air Lines on DTW to EWR75.4%
- Spirit Airlines on DTW to EWR67.6%
- DTW to ORD, a related route72.2%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- DTW to ATL, a related route78.9%
- United Airlines on-time record91.1%
- Republic Airways on-time record81.8%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record75.4%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. DTW to EWR and EWR 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.