Route reliability record
DTW→LAS
Detroit to Las Vegas
- Flights
- 2,843
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 1,749 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B+, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 2,843 flights, of which Spirit Airlines flew 564 at 81.1% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, 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
76.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,827 completed flights
Avg delay
56 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.49%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Spirit
81.1% on time across 564 flights
These figures cover 2,843 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 3 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on DTW to LAS
The two carriers here are closely matched: 5 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 Airlines | 564 | 81.1% | 51 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,897 | 75.9% | 60 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 337 | 70.8% | 42 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 45 | 62.2% | 62 min | 0.00% | D+ |
No carrier stands out. Spirit tops the table at 81.1%, 5 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
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 15 points, against 5 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am171 flights86.5%
- 8am–11am741 flights79.7%
- 11am–2pm599 flights75.3%
- 2pm–5pm367 flights71.8%
- 5pm–8pm482 flights72.9%
- 8pm–5am483 flights74.6%
Scale runs 65% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 86.5% of the time, against 71.8% for the afternoon window. That is 15 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 741 flights scheduled in it.
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.
June is the worst month at 61.5% on time, 24 points below August, the best at 85.0%. 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 309 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 79.8% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.5%. 8 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 48% of the 38,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 48%Carrier
- 27%National Airspace System
- 21%Late-arriving aircraft
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 48%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 18,000 of the 38,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 38,013 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.49%, below the national 1.81% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.9% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the about an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,749 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 81.7% on time across 2,838 flights, 6 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 6 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,843 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.
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. August runs 85.0% on time and June 61.5%, a swing of 24 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 2,827 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
DTW to LAS questions
How often is DTW to LAS delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.9% of the 2,843 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on DTW to LAS?
Spirit Airlines leads at 81.1% on time across 564 flights. Delta Air Lines is at the other end on 75.9%, a gap of 5 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 LAS?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 86.5% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 71.8%, 15 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 June delays on DTW to LAS?
June is the weakest month at 61.5% on time, compared with 85.0% in August. 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
- LAS to DTW — the return legseparate record
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics
- Harry Reid International (LAS) delay statistics
- Spirit Airlines on-time record81.1%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record75.9%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record70.8%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. DTW to LAS and LAS to DTW are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.