Route reliability record
DTW→FLL
Detroit to Fort Lauderdale
- Flights
- 2,692
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,127 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 6 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 2,692 DTW to FLL flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,808 at 73.6% on time.
Best time to fly DTW to FLL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 83.4% of the time and Tuesday flights 80.2%, against 71.5% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 58 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
71.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,625 completed flights
Avg delay
69 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.34%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
73.6% on time across 1,808 flights
These figures cover 2,692 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.2% 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 FLL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 73.6% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 66.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 630 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 107 | 77.2% | 95 min | 4.67% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,808 | 73.6% | 69 min | 1.66% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 630 | 66.8% | 68 min | 3.17% | C− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 147 | 59.7% | 61 min | 5.44% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 3.2% 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 FLL
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 Fort Lauderdale
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. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. DTW → MIADetroit to Miami | American Airlines | 88.0% | 88.9% | 1.02% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 1020 06:00 |
| 2. DTW → MIADetroit to Miami | Delta Air Lines | 78.2% | 79.1% | 1.08% | 8am–11am, Tue | DL 1468 08:30 |
| 3. DTW → FLLDetroit to Fort Lauderdale | Delta Air Lines | 72.4% | 73.6% | 1.66% | 5am–8am, Tue | DL 1378 10:05 |
| 4. DTW → FLLDetroit to Fort Lauderdale | Spirit Airlines | 64.7% | 66.8% | 3.17% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
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 27 points, against 7 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am707 flights83.4%
- 8am–11am485 flights71.8%
- 11am–2pm364 flights76.8%
- 2pm–5pm488 flights63.9%
- 5pm–8pm347 flights65.2%
- 8pm–5am301 flights56.3%
Scale runs 50% to 90%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 56.3% on time, against 83.4% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 707 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter DTW to FLL 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 FLL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 83.4% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 56.3%, a wide gap of 27.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am83.4%
- 8–11am71.8%
- 11am–2pm76.8%
- 2–5pm63.9%
- 5–8pm65.2%
- 8pm–5am56.3%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 36 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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 89.2% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 328 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 62.1%, a spread of 18 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 46% of the 51,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Carrier
- 30%National Airspace System
- 23%Late-arriving aircraft
- 1%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 46%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 23,000 of the 51,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 51,464 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.34% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.15%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
11.2% 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 1,127 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 72.3% on time across 2,705 flights, within about 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 2,692 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 FLL 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 89.2% on time and March 53.3%, a swing of 36 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 2,625 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DTW to FLL questions
How often is DTW to FLL 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 28.5% of the 2,692 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 FLL?
Delta Air Lines leads at 73.6% on time across 1,808 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 66.8%, a gap of 7 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 FLL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 83.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 56.3%, 27 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 March delays on DTW to FLL?
March is the weakest month at 53.3% on time, compared with 89.2% in September. Across the year that is 36 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
- FLL to DTW — the return legseparate record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- JetBlue Airways on DTW to FLL77.2%
- Delta Air Lines on DTW to FLL73.6%
- Spirit Airlines on DTW to FLL66.8%
- Frontier Airlines on DTW to FLL59.7%
- DTW to ORD, a related route72.2%
- ATL to FLL, a related route70.7%
- DTW to ATL, a related route78.9%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record77.2%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record73.6%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record66.8%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
Direction matters. DTW to FLL and FLL 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.